MOSCOW: Russia has sharply increased its military presence on the border with Ukraine, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on television on Tuesday, warning of the threat of "full-scale war."
"The number of (Russian) tanks at bases located along our border has tripled," Poroshenko said in an interview, adding that "the number of units that have been deployed along our border -- what's more, along its full length -- has grown dramatically."
He said that the military buildup meant that the country is "under threat of full-scale war with Russia."
Poroshenko didn't give Russian troop numbers but said the information on the military buildup was based on intelligence reports.
He said that numbers of Russian troops in Crimea had tripled since Moscow annexed the peninsula in 2014.
Russian forces on Sunday fired on and captured three Ukrainian ships and their crews off Crimea, sparking the most dangerous crisis between the ex-Soviet neighbours in years.