Russia building huge military base near Ukrainian border: Reuters

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russia has started to build a huge military base housing ammunition depots and barracks for several thousand soldiers near the Ukrainian border, a project that suggests the Kremlin is digging in for a prolonged stand-off with Kiev, according to a Reuters report.

The base, when completed, will even have its own swimming pool, skating rink and barber shop, according to public documents. This week workmen were erecting a fence in a cornfield outside the village of Soloti to mark out the perimeter, and told a Reuters reporter to leave, accusing him of being a Ukrainian spy.

Russia denies its military is in Ukraine. The defense ministry did not reply to written questions from Reuters about the purpose of the base it is building and whether there was any connection to the Ukraine conflict.

According to tender documents published on the Russian government website zakupki.gov.ru, the ministry is building the military base on a 300-hectare site near Valuyki, a small town not far from Soloti.

The ministry intends to build nine barracks for 3,500 soldiers, warehouses for rockets, artillery weapons, and other munitions with a total area of over 6,000 square meters.

The documents also stated there would be a large training complex, and an infirmary for 50 beds, which can be expanded in case of "massive influx of wounded".

They did not give the exact location of the base, but local residents in Soloti said they believed it would be on their doorstep. "They are building a military town," said Alexander Panchenko, a local resident whose house overlooks farmland where preparatory work is underway for a big construction project.

A man in Soloti, who called himself a representative of the Federal Agency for Special Construction - which overseas construction of defense installations - refused to talk about the work, saying only that "a secret facility" was being built. According to the procurement documents, the defense ministry plans to use the base to train soldiers on artillery and army air defense, as well as in driving tanks and armored personnel carriers.

The base will include a headquarters with a communications node, a dining room for 2,000 soldiers, a recreation center with the skating rink, sports complexes with a swimming pool, tennis and badminton courts, and a residential complex of more than 1,000 apartments.

The document, seen by Reuters, requires the completion of the first stage - the base design and initial construction and installation works - by April 29, 2016.