The Kremlin has dismissed as "one more hoax" a report that cited Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko as telling European officials that Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had made veiled threats about the security of EU members.
"We no longer consider it possible to pay attention to reports like that," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Ekho Moskvy Radio, Interfax reported Thursday. He also called the German report "one more hoax."
German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported a comment supposedly made by Putin and relayed by Poroshenko to EU commission president Jose Manuel Barroso as saying: ""If I wanted to, in two days Russian troops could be not only in Kiev, but in Riga, Vilnius, Tallinn, Warsaw or Bucharest."
Earlier this month, Italy's la Repubblica quoted Putin as telling Barroso in a telephone conversation that if he wanted to, Russia could capture Kiev in two days. The Kremlin dismissed the quote as taken out of context.