Russia pulls 90,000 troops, 1,100 tanks, hundreds of planes to border with Ukraine

Russia deployed nearly 90,000 troops, 1,100 tanks, 2,500 armored fighting vehicles, 1,600 artillery and missile systems, 340 combat aircraft and other weapons and equipment on the border with Ukraine.

"In total, about 87,000-90,000 servicepersons (in particular, more than 35,000 members of the 1st and the 2nd army corps) of the Armed Forces of Russia are stationed along the state border of Ukraine in the temporarily occupied areas of Donetsk, Luhansk regions and Crimea. There are also 1,100 tanks, 2,500 armored fighting vehicles, 1,600 artillery and missile systems, 340 combat aircraft, 240 combat helicopters, more than 50 ships/boats and 6 submarines," Vadym Skibitsky, a representative of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, said in an interview with the Obozrevatel media outlet.

He also noted that those groups could be strengthened by three mobilization deployment operations centers that could mobilize about 40,000 people. In the immediate vicinity of Ukraine's borders, such centers were established in the town of Boguchar (Belgorod region in Russia), the town of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky (Rostov region in Russia) and in the village of Novoozerne in the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

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