KIEV, August 28 (RIA Novosti) – Russian and Ukrainian border guard officials are scheduled to hold their first border control consultations Saturday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said at an urgent meeting of the country’s National Security and Defense Council Thursday.
“Chiefs of border guard services will start consultations on Saturday. I instructed heads of our service to return Ukrainian border guards to border checkpoints and agree on joint patrols to make any incursion into our territory impossible,” he said.
Poroshenko added that Russian and Ukrainian General Staff officials held consultations on border issues earlier Thursday.
“Today heads of General Staffs of Ukraine and Russia held first consultations to discuss issues of state border control and the necessity to prevent Russian military formations from crossing into Ukraine,” he said.
On August 24, Donetsk People’s Republic forces started to move south to the Sea of Azov on the Russian-Ukrainian border. Three days later, the republic claimed it had moved tanks into Novoazovsk on the Sea of Azov.
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko claimed that Russian "troops have entered Ukraine."
Andrei Kelin, Russia’s envoy to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), has denied Kiev’s accusations, saying that there are no Russian convoys in Ukraine.
In mid-April, Kiev launched a military operation against independence supporters in the southeast of Ukraine after they refused to recognize the legitimacy of the coup-imposed government.
The violent confrontation is ongoing near the Russian-Ukrainian border, which has been hit multiple times by Ukrainian artillery.
One person has been killed and nine injured on the Russian territory as a result of Ukrainian shelling since the military operation began.
Moscow has repeatedly condemned the military operation in the east of Ukraine and shelling of the Russian territory.
