The Russian Federation is building up a grouping of its troops along the Russian-Ukrainian border, Deputy Commander of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) Headquarters, Major General Bohdan Bondar.

"This concerns both the Kharkiv sector and areas closer to Mariupol. We see them deploying their troops there," he said on the Hromadske on Thursday evening.

According to Bondar, this gradually has been happening during the entire period of the conflict in Donbas.

"At first, let's say, their capabilities were limited. And since then, they've built both training ranges and facilities to accommodate military units and subunits, and expanded those components that had already existed. As the sector was not threatening to the Russian Federation, but now they have virtually rebuilt the railway, which no longer passes through the territory of Ukraine. That is, they've built military infrastructure able to transfer forces and equipment, including to certain areas, within a short period of time," he explained.

Earlier, the deputy commander of the JFO staff said that the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission couldn't verify the withdrawal of forces at Stanytsia Luhanska.