UKRAINIAN forces fired “a large number” of rockets near the border with Crimea on Tuesday in what it claimed was a planned military exercise.

The provocative drills took place in the southern Kherson region which sits next to the territory annexed by Russia following the 2014 fascist-led coup in Ukraine.

A convoy of vehicles from the Ukrainian army’s southern division arrived on the Crimean border and fired a number of missiles from a multiple-launch rocket system.

“The result of the drill was excellent. We are confident that this unit is in a state of full preparedness,” a military spokesman said.

The US and Britain have been accused of deliberately fanning the flames of war by flooding the region with arms and making false claims about the prospect of an imminent Russian invasion.

The Morning Star has reported opposition party claims that Ukraine was being forced to take out loans and buy US weapons at massively inflated prices.

Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on both nations to tone down the rhetoric, accusing them of creating panic and destabilising the country’s flagging economy.

But his pleas seem to have been ignored as both countries continue to issue threats to Moscow which insists that it has no plans for military intervention.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking on the matter for the first time in nearly six weeks, accused the West on Tuesday of trying to lure the country into war and ignoring legitimate security concerns.

Four Ukrainian special operations groups trained by Britain have been deployed to the Gorlovka area, according to Donetsk People’s Republic deputy commander Eduard Basarin.

“Four sabotage and reconnaissance groups, 12 to 14 strong each, arrived at 95th air assault brigade on the Gorlovka axis,” he said. 

“These groups have completed urban warfare drills at 184th training centre in the Lviv region. They had British instructors from the Orbital training mission.”

News of the troop movements comes days after the notorious Blackwater group — now known as Academi — was accused of training a far-right militia at a camp in the Sumy region of Ukraine.

Ukrainian aggression has continued along the so-called contact line in breach of the Minsk Agreement which led to a fragile ceasefire in the Donbas region.

But Donetsk People’s Republic Prime Minister Denis Pushilin said that Kiev had stepped up the use of drones in the border area dropping “explosive devices.”

A separatist militiaman was killed during such an attack on Tuesday, he said, accusing Ukraine of breaching tighter control measures agreed in July 2020 banning the flight of unmanned aerial vehicles.