Ukraine mobilizes military reservists

Ukraine’s top security official says he has ordered a call-up of all military reserves in the Eastern European country as tensions rise between Russia and the West in the region.

Andriy Parubiy, the chief of the national security and defense council of Ukraine, told reporters in the capital Kiev on Sunday that he had issued the call-up to “all those that armed forces need at the moment” across the former Soviet Republic.

He also argued that the mobilization was vital to ensure that the country’s “armed forces were combat-ready as soon as possible” for the sake of the “security and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

Moreover, the security official noted that Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry had been urged to seek assistance from the US and Britain.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Defense Minister Igor Tenyukh said on Saturday that Russia had already sent 30 armored personnel carriers as well as 6,000 additional forces into the autonomous region of Crimea in southern Ukraine.

This came after the Russian parliament unanimously approved President Vladimir Putin’s request to deploy troops into Crimea.

However, speaking at a press conference in Kiev on Sunday, new Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk accused Moscow of declaring “war” on his country and warned the nation was on the “brink of disaster.”

Ukraine has been gripped by unrest since November 2013, when ousted president, Viktor Yanukovych, refrained from signing an Association Agreement with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia.

On February 23, amid rising violence in Ukraine, the parliament ousted Yanukovych and named Oleksandr Turchynov, the legislature’s speaker, as interim president.