Moscow denies Russian jets violated Ukraine airspace

Moscow (AFP) - Russia's defence ministry on Saturday denied claims by the Pentagon and Ukraine's pro-Western leader that its planes had repeatedly violated Ukrainian airspace in recent days.

"Russia's airspace monitoring systems have not registered any violations of air borders of the states adjacent to Russia, including Ukraine," the defense ministry said in a statement carried by the state ITAR TASS news agency.

The Pentagon said Russian warplanes had violated Ukraine's airspace several times on Thursday and Friday while Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk claimed on Saturday Russia wanted to "provoke Ukraine to start a war."