Regrettably, the Russian Federation has confined its response to a formal reply and never provided Ukraine with an additional explanation concerning its purpose of conducting Air Force exercise, Aviadarts 2014, number of forces and means involved, and on the intensity of flights of the warplanes.
In this regard, we emphasize once again that the planning of combat use of missile, bomb and guns against ground targets, as well as overcoming air defense system of conditional enemy near Ukraine's borders directly on the eve and on the day of the presidential elections in our state (the active phase of the "Aviadarts" is scheduled for 24 - 25 May of this year) is Russia’s attempt to disrupt the elections.
In addition, the Russian side has not given consent to Ukraine conducting observation flights under the Treaty on Open Skies, stating in its reply that it is "ready to consider appropriate request of our state during the next meeting of the Open Skies Consultative Commission" in Vienna.
In light of the above , we believe that Russia is trying to gain time and prevent Ukraine from conducting observation flight in order to confirm or refute the fact of the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Ukrainian border.
Unfortunately, the whole logic of Russia's actions is aimed at preventing Ukraine from obtaining information on the real situation on its borders.
In this regard, Ukraine is once again forced to use the procedures provided for in Chapter III ( Risk Reduction) of the Vienna Document on Confidence - and Security - Building Measures and initiate another round of consultations provided in said document.