Russian President Vladimir Putin makes a televised statement
Russian President Vladimir Putin makes a televised statement at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, in the early hours of July 21, 2014. Putin said on Monday the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in east Ukraine must not be used for political ends and urged separatists to allow international experts access to the crash site. Reuters

A senior official of the United Nations said that Ukraine violence would cause significant damage to millions of people. Russia, in the meantime, dismissed Pentagon's claims that the Russian military was growing its strength near the Ukraine border.

UN humanitarian operations director John Ging said that four million people from east Ukraine would suffer from lack of power and water supplies due to the on-going violence in the region. He stressed on reaching to a resolution regarding the political crisis in the region. He was talking in an emergency meeting on Tuesday, August 5. Ging said that civilians in urban regions would be more likely to be killed if the unrest continued. "Immediate action is therefore required to prevent this," he referred to the scarcity of water and power supplies in the eastern part of Ukraine.

The Russian Ministry of Defense called Pentagon's claims as "unsubstantiated," according to Russia Today. Pentagon, along with NATO, earlier claimed that Vladimir Putin was building-up military near its border with Ukraine. Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, earlier said that the Putin government had 10,000 troops on its border with Ukraine. NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said on Wednesday, August 6 that the number of Russian troops on Ukraine border was 20,000.

Major General spokesman Igor Konashenkov indicated that the United States had started sounding unconvincing about its claims. "In Russia's Ministry of Defense such statements only raise sympathy for the speakers of the Pentagon, the US State Department and NATO," he said. "It seems the people are serious, but they have to constantly improvise during their speeches to somehow add seriousness to their statements."

Konashenkov said that it was "impossible to perform such a manoeuver with thousands of soldiers with weapons and military equipment in such a short time." Even if Russia did so, it would not be possible to hide it from OSCE observers, he said. According to Russia, the military exercise near the border was a routine one. It was scheduled in 2013, the Russian Ministry of Defense said.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au