Updated 6:24 p.m. Moscow Time
MOSCOW, September 11 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow has never deployed its troops in eastern Ukraine, but some Russian volunteers are taking part in clashes between Kiev-led forces and independence militia, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday.
"Russian servicemen have never been deployed in Ukraine. The Russian army is not fighting there," spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told reporters in Moscow.
"There are volunteers, who could not ignore the events in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions," Lukashevich said.
The diplomat stressed, though, that foreign mercenaries are taking part in Ukraine’s conflict on the side of Kiev authorities.
“Nobody questions the legitimacy of the presence of mercenaries in the Ukrainian army,” he said.
On August 28, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called an emergency meeting with the country"s Security Council over the situation in the Donetsk Region and claimed that "Russian troops have entered Ukraine."
Moscow denied Kiev's claims, calling them groundless.
In late August, Russian paratroopers were detained by Ukraine's military when they accidentally crossed into Ukraine while patrolling the border.
Putin noted that Ukrainian forces have crossed the Russian border several times in the past in larger numbers. The Russian leader added that such incidents with the Ukrainian forces was never a problem for Russia and expressed hope that in the case of the Russian paratroopers, it will not be a problem for Ukraine.
On September 3 Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said that the country had begun the implementation of a 'Wall' project, which will be "an actual state border between Ukraine and the Russian Federation" and which should be completed within six months.
