MOSCOW, August 25 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday that he has not heard of any invasion with military equipment from Russia into Ukraine in the vicinity of Markino, but noted that there has been plenty of misinformation in the past.
“I haven’t heard of anything, but misinformation in regard to invasions is pretty broad,” Lavrov said during a briefing.
Earlier in August, in light of the worsening humanitarian situation in Ukraine, Russia suggested sending an international humanitarian mission to eastern Ukraine under the auspices of the ICRC.
Western officials and media made unconfirmed allegations that the humanitarian aid convoy contained weapons. The head of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen went so far as to claim the humanitarian convoy was a pretense for a military invasion, despite the fact that the cargo had been repeatedly checked by all parties.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko claimed on August 15 that Ukrainian artillery destroyed Russian military hardware that had allegedly crossed into Ukraine at night.
The Russian Defense Ministry refuted the allegations, calling the claims a 'fantasy' that is not worth discussing.
The Russian Border Guard Service also stressed that the reports are not based on reality and explained that cross-border regions were indeed being patrolled by mobile teams of border guards, but only on the Russian side of the border.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Special Monitoring Mission working on the Russian-Ukrainian border also said it had not seen any weapons crossing between the countries.
