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Russia Accused of Building New 'Berlin Wall' on Crimean Border

A Ukrainian former foreign minister, Volodymyr Ogryzko, has accused Russia of attempting to build a new "Berlin Wall." U.S. Embassy New Delhi / Flickr

A former Ukrainian foreign minister has accused Russia of building a new "Berlin Wall" by laying land mines between Crimea and the Ukrainian mainland.

"There is only one question remaining for Moscow: They haven't decided yet where" the wall will run, Volodymyr Ogryzko, who served as a foreign minister under former president Viktor Yushchenko, said in comments broadcast by 112 Ukraine.

It could go "through eastern Ukrainian regions, across the center of Ukraine, or it could be limited to Crimea," Ogryzko added.

Ogryzko also said that by annexing Crimea, severing its connection with Ukraine proper, and planting anti-personnel mines to prevent any attempts at a counter-invasion, Russia was effectively constructing a new "Berlin Wall."

Earlier this month, a Ukrainian delegation to a meeting on land mines in Geneva said Russian troops in Crimea were creating minefields "at the entry points between the continental part of Ukraine and Crimean peninsula," AFP reported. ? 

Following the annexation of Crimea last month, concerns have mounted in the West that Russia may move in to take over parts of eastern and central Ukraine.

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