Russia has denied that it is preparing to annex breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine, as it marks three years since it seized the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea.

Recent developments have fuelled speculation that the Kremlin might be planning to take formal control of parts of Ukraine’s Donbas area, which have been held since spring 2014 by militants armed and funded by Moscow.

Last month, Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a decree recognising the validity of passports and other documents issued by the separatist “people’s republics” of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where the Russian rouble is already the most commonly used currency.

On March 1st, warlords running the two regions announced the seizure of mines, factories and other businesses that were still being managed by Ukrainian-registered firms and paying taxes to Kiev, and said they would now focus on supplying the Russian market.

In response, Ukraine this week banned all cargo traffic from crossing the front line and sanctioned five Russian-owned banks, imposing a blockade on the breakaway regions and intensifying Kiev’s economic battle with Moscow.

“There are no such written scenarios,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday, when asked whether Russia could annex eastern Ukraine, where separatist leaders have backed such a move.

“You know, different discussions are taking place. You know the position repeatedly expressed by representatives of Donbas. But there are no written scenarios for that.”

Mr Peskov added however, that Russia was closely monitoring a blockade that amounted to Ukraine “driving regions away and intentionally undermining its own territorial integrity . . . Russia cannot leave them without humanitarian aid.”

Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of fomenting a separatist uprising in Donbas and sending soldiers, weapons and ammunition to help the militants, while also overseeing all major political decisions in the breakaway areas. About 10,000 people have been killed and 1.5 million displaced by almost three years of fighting.

Russia still denies being a party to the conflict, and Mr Peskov claimed that it “was and remains in favour of a united, predictable and flourishing Ukraine within its borders. But for now, unfortunately, the country is a long way from that.”

Strategic sites

The Kremlin also initially denied sending troops without insignia to take strategic sites and surround Ukrainian military bases in Crimea three years ago, following Ukraine’s pro-western revolution.

Gunmen stormed Crimea’s parliament on February 27th 2014, and installed Russian nationalist Sergei Aksyonov as Moscow’s puppet head of the local government.

In a March 16th 2014 referendum, Russia said about 96 per cent of voters backed annexation on turnout of 83 per cent – implausible figures given strong opposition to the move among the 30 per cent of the local population made up of Crimean Tatars and ethnic Ukrainians. Much of Crimea’s ethnic-Russian majority showed great enthusiasm for annexation, which Russia ratified days after the vote.

Only a handful of Russian allies recognise Crimea as part of the country, and the European Union and United States have sanctioned Moscow and pledged never to accept its claim to sovereignty over the now heavily militarised peninsula.