President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has arrived in the Donetsk oblast, where he is currently holding a meeting with the military.
"I am here in the Donbass today to express the words of gratitude, great respect from all our compatriots, from the state and personally from myself to you…", - the head of state said.
He recalled that three weeks ago, his decree imposed martial law in 10 regions of Ukraine in response to the aggression of the Russian Federation against the Naval Forces of Ukraine in the Azov-Black Sea basin near the Kerch Strait in order to protect the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of our state.
According to Poroshenko, Russia had strengthened its groupings since the end of August along the entire border with Ukraine - from Belarus to the occupied Crimea and Transnistria. The number of Russian troops, tanks and rocket systems is being grown.
"The ground grouping of Russian troops in the temporarily occupied territories in Donbass and Crimea along the border of Ukraine consists of more than 28 battalion tactical groups, more than 1120 tanks, 2600 armored vehicles, 1230 artillery systems and 442 MRLS, 6 tactical ballistic missile systems… Space reconnaissance data demonstrate the deployment of Russian tanks at a distance of 18 km from the Ukrainian border. So we see that the number of tanks from mid-September increased almost threefold in only one of the directions - from 92 to 250 vehicles with ammunition and crews. Why were they transferred here?", - the President of Ukraine said.
Poroshenko stated that according to the results of three weeks, it is already possible to sum up the preliminary results of the legal regime of martial law, however, he noted that he cannot speak about everything.
"A lot has been done in the direction of strengthening the state's defense capacity. We have strengthened the air defense of the state by increasing the forces of the Air Forces in threatening directions… Our defense line is being maximally strengthened, and Ukrainian soldiers are ready to respond to provocative actions by the aggressor at any time", - the president said.
Just before, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman was going to visit south of the Donetsk oblast, but postponed the trip.