KIEV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukraine’s president vowed to increase troop numbers to fend off attacks by Russia-backed separatist rebels and warned his countrymen that there is still the threat of a “large-scale invasion,” in an impassioned speech to mark Independence Day on Monday.
Speaking during a military parade, President Petro Poroshenko said Ukraine must not be complacent even though hostilities have largely died down. In a show of force, thousands of Ukrainian servicemen marched in downtown Kiev on to mark the country’s independence from the Soviet Union on Aug. 24, 1991.
“We stand for peace, but we are not pacifists,” Poroshenko said. “We must get through the 25th year of independence as if on brittle ice. We must understand that the smallest misstep could be fatal. The war for independence is still ongoing.”
Poroshenko didn’t say how many more troops he would send to eastern Ukraine. He claimed that Russia had massed about 50,000 troops on the border with Ukraine and had supplied the rebels with about 500 tanks and 400 pieces of artillery. Poroshenko warned that Russia is wary of an outright invasion and is instead developing another strategy: sow discord across all of Ukraine and thus spoil its relations with its Western allies.
Poroshenko compared the rebel-held territories in the east and their viability to the evil kingdom of Mordor from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” novels.