The European Union denounced that Russia had already mobilized 150,000 troops on the border with Ukraine and in Crimea

The concentration of troops ordered by Russia on the border with Ukraine and in Crimea – the Ukrainian region annexed by Moscow in 2014 – is the “largest on record” in this region and amounts to around 150,000 troops., denounced this Monday Josep Borrell, high representative for the foreign policy of the European Union (EU).

According to the head of European diplomacy, military deployment implies that “The risk of further escalation is obvious.” “The deployment continues with more military assets and field hospitals. This is the largest deployment of the Russian army on the Ukrainian border ”. And he reaffirmed that the EU will not recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea, ”he said.

The statements came in the context of a meeting that foreign ministers from the 27 countries of the European Union kicked off a videoconference meeting on Monday to discuss the dramatic worsening of tensions between Ukraine and Russia .

“This military build-up must stop and we call on Russia to initiate a de-escalation”demanded the head of European diplomacy, who sees with “great concern” the development of events on the Ukrainian border, because the maneuvers involve a large number of soldiers and this means that a “spark could jump”.

On that day, the European foreign ministers even added the Ukrainian foreign minister to the videoconference, Dmytro Kuleba.

The senior Ukrainian official even presented on Twitter a plan to convince Russia to stop the escalation of tensions. For Kuleba, “The key element is the preparation of a new round of sectoral sanctions. Individual sanctions are no longer enough ”.

The EU expressed to the Kyiv official its support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and insisted that it step up its “diplomatic efforts” to reduce tensions, But as acknowledged by the head of European diplomacy, there is currently no proposal to apply sanctions against Russia. “We are not heading for new sanctions at the moment. This is not what is emerging ”on the horizon, a point.

“Things may change, but the situation is what I am explaining,” the Spanish politician said after the meeting.

In the same spirit, the head of the Spanish diplomacy expressed, Arancha González Laya, saying that the sanctions “are not an end in themselves”, although “if there are actions on the part of Russia that we feel need a response, we are giving them “.

Like González Laya, the German owner, Heiko maas, he said that Russia must “move from provocation to cooperation”: “Ukraine’s territorial integrity is not in dispute. It became clear in the debate with Kuleba, ”he exorcised.

Ukraine, for its part, announced Monday the expulsion of a Russian diplomat after being declared “persona non grata” in response to such action against a Ukrainian consul. “The Foreign Ministry today sent a note declaring ‘persona non grata’ to an adviser at the Russian embassy in Kiev,” he told the agency. AFP the foreign spokesperson, Oleg Nikolenko.

“You have 72 hours to leave the territory of our country,” he added.

On Saturday, Russia announced the expulsion of a Ukrainian consul in St. Petersburg, briefly detained by the security services (FSB), whom they accused of having tried to obtain secret information.

Kiev protested against this “illegal detention”, and “completely denying” the veracity of these accusations against Consul Oleksander Sossoniuk.

With information from AFP and Europa Press

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