Kiev rejects accusations that it has resorted to terrorism

Kiev rejects accusations that it has resorted to terrorism

Earlier, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said that two people were killed in clashes with "Ukrainian saboteurs" in Crimea.

"I believe it is already obvious for all that today’s Kiev authorities are not seeking the methods of solving problems through negotiations but are switching to terror. This is a very alarming thing," Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier, according to TASS, and added:

"This news is very alarming, indeed. Our special services have prevented a reconnaissance and sabotage group of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry from getting into Crimea."

But Reuters is reporting Poroshenko as saying on Wednesday that "Russia would not succeed in getting international sanctions on itself lifted by trying to discredit Ukraine, and that he expected Russia to help ensure the terms of the Minsk ceasefire agreement were fulfilled."

"Russian accusations towards Ukraine of terrorism in the occupied Crimea sound as preposterous and cynical as the statements of the Russian leadership about the absence of the Russian troops in Donbas," Poroshenko said.

Phone calls and combat readiness

Poroshenko on Thursday ordered the country’s Foreign Ministry "to organize phone conversations with the leadership of Germany and France in a trilateral Normandy format and invite for the conversation US Vice President Joe Biden, European Council President Donald Tusk and initiate a conversation with Russian President Putin," TASS reported, quoting his press service.

Poroshenko also "ordered Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin to ask the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine to increase the number of monitors on the border with Crimea and also instruct the chief of Ukraine’s mission to the United Nations to hold consultations in the UN Security Council."

Earlier on Thursday, the Ukrainian president "ordered all units on the border with Crimea and on the contact line in Donbas to be at the highest level of combat readiness."