Ukraine's President Not Excluding Martial Law, Total Mobilization

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Thursday that he cannot rule out the introduction of martial law and a total mobilization.

KIEV (Sputnik) — On August 10, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said that it had dismantled a spy ring organized by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry in Crimea, which was preparing acts of sabotage on "critical and life-supporting elements of the peninsula's infrastructure."

"Unfortunately, the deterioration of the situation in the east and in Crimea does not exclude the possibility that in the event of further escalation, we will be forced to impose martial law and declare mobilization," Poroshenko said while visiting one of the western regions.

Kiev launched a special military operation in Ukraine’s southeast in April 2014, after local residents refused to recognize the new Ukrainian authorities, which came to power as a result of what many of them believe to have been a coup. According to the UN data, more than 9,500 people have fallen victim to the conflict.

Crimea reunified with Russia after almost 97 percent of those who voted in a local referendum on the issue in 2014 supported the move. Ukraine did not recognize the outcome of the referendum and accused Russia of annexing the peninsula.