Russia: Our troops will not invade Ukraine

Russia has promised the United States not to invade Ukraine and ordered troops on the country’s border back to their barracks.

It emerged today that defence minister Sergei Shoigu gave the assurance to his US counterpart in a “candid” hour-long phone call last night.

Mr Shoigu said Russian soldiers who had been conducting exercises near Ukraine’s border would return to their “permanent positions”.

Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov also said today that there was no reason to fear that Moscow would try to take over south-eastern Ukraine following its annexation of Crimea.

“We are — and I underscore this — not at all inclined to repeat the so-called Crimea scenario in south-eastern Ukraine. There are no grounds to fear this,” he told news website gazeta.ru.

There was no mention of a reduction in the overall number of Russian troops in the region bordering Ukraine — said to be around 40,000.

The US and EU agreed to extend sanctions against Russian individuals yesterday — hitting senior figures in government and industry. Tensions on the ground in eastern Ukraine have been rising as pro-Russian separatists seized more official buildings.

The militants also continue to hold seven European observers hostage in Slovyansk.

Today Pentagon press secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby revealed that Mr Shoigu had “reiterated his assurance that Russian forces would not invade” in his convesation with Chuck Hagel.

Washington has completed its deployment of 600 soldiers to Baltic states in a move to reassure Nato allies. The EU extended sanctions to 15 new individuals including Moscow’s chief of the general staff, General Valery Gerasimov, military intelligence chief Igor Sergun, deputy prime minister Dmitry Kozak and pro-Russian separatist leaders in Crimea and eastern Ukrainian.

Similar measures announced by the US saw sanctions extended to the head of state oil giant Rosneft Igor Sechin and Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the committee of international affairs of Russia’s lower house of parliament.