Ukraine says Russia moving elite units east

He urged Ukraines Western partners to speed up the delivery of weapons to his country. Bucharest The Moldovan government strongly criticised comments Friday by a Russian military official suggesting that Russias forces are aiming to take control of not just eastern Ukraine but southern Ukraine as well, creating another way to the region of Transnistria in Moldova.Moldovas government on Friday called Rustam Minnekayevs comments not only unacceptable but also unfounded.

Ukraine's security chief said Friday that the main battles in the country are taking place in the Donbas, the industrial heartland in the east, with Russia deploying more and more troops every day.

Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, told The Associated Press that over 100,000 Russian troops are currently fighting in Ukraine, including mercenaries from Syria and Libya.

Some of Russia's elite military units have left the strategic Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which was declared "liberated" by the Kremlin on Thursday, and are now moving to the east of the country to participate in the fighting there, Danilov said.

Danilov said a nighttime helicopter delivery brought weapons to Mariupol's steel mill, the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the city. He urged Ukraine's Western partners to speed up the delivery of weapons to his country.

___ Bucharest: The Moldovan government strongly criticised comments Friday by a Russian military official suggesting that Russia's forces are aiming to take control of not just eastern Ukraine but southern Ukraine as well, creating "another way" to the region of Transnistria in Moldova.

Moldova's government on Friday called Rustam Minnekayev's comments "not only unacceptable but also unfounded''. The statement added that his words will "lead to increased tension and mistrust in society".

Minnekayev said at a defence industry event earlier Friday that broader control of Ukraine would open the way to Moldova, where Russia backs the breakaway region of Transnistria.

Transnistria broke away after a short civil war in the early 1990s and is unrecognized by most countries. An estimated 1,500 Russian soldiers have been stationed there since the civil war.

Since Russia launched its attacks on Ukraine on Feb. 24, fears have grown that Moldova could be next in Russia's crosshairs. Moldova is not a member of the European Union or NATO.

The war has prompted Moldovan officials to try to speed up the country's bid to join the 27-nation EU, which it applied to do last month. The process, however, will likely take many years.

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