Russia-Ukraine crisis could tip into 'total war'
But for now, the Pentagon is playing down the recent build-up of Russian troops on the border.
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London
AS Ukraine celebrates on Wednesday its 25th anniversary as an independent state, the crisis with Russia is escalating. At a time of what would otherwise be national celebration, Prime Minister Petro Poroshenko warned last week that there is a rising risk of a "full-scale Russian invasion along all fronts", ratcheting up what is already the bloodiest European conflict since the wars over the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
The uptick in tensions coincides with a visit last Friday by President Vladimir Putin to Crimea which was annexed by Moscow in March 2014, sparking the worst downturn in Russian-Western relations since the end of the Cold War. The diplomatic temperature has been raised further in the last week by Moscow's assertion that Kiev attempted an armed incursion into Crimea, plus the death of three Ukrainian soldiers on Thursday.
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