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Putin’s terse rejoinder was “that’s impossible because we are not there,” the Russian leader’s spokesman later told Canadian journalists.

Putin has insisted for months that no Russian troops have ever crossed into Ukraine. This is total nonsense.

I, myself, saw and spoke with Russia’s “little green men” clad in the latest Russian uniforms and equipped with the best Russian gear who had come from bases in Central Russia to Crimea in the days before Russia annexed the Ukrainian territory. I saw them again, although slightly more disguised, in eastern Ukraine during the summer, where they fought a decisive tank and artillery battle with Ukrainian forces at the very moment when it appeared that Kyiv’s forces would win back territory it had lost to Russian-backed and directed rebels.

NATO accused Russia three days ago of once again pouring ground troops into eastern Ukraine that have been equipped with heavy armoured vehicles, towed artillery guns and rocket launchers.

Like a bad penny, since first ordering his troops into Crimea, Putin has continued to turn up at events where the hosts would rather not see him. Days after other members of the G8 boycotted a summit that Putin was to have hosted in June in Sochi, he attended ceremonies in France marking the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings while others at the gathering sought ways to avoid talking with him.

Brisbane’s Courier Mail welcomed Putin to Australia on Friday by demanding in Russian on its front page that the president say “sorry” for the shooting down two months ago of a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine. Australians remain furious over the killing of 38 of their nationals in the crash and have squarely blamed Putin and his troops for the tragedy.