The United States denounced that Russia has Ukraine’s largest military build-up since 2014

The United States assured that Russia had “the greatest military accumulation” on the border with Ukraine since 2014, when it “violated the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country”., adding that “it is not entirely clear” to them that the purpose of the troops at the border is to “train”, as Russia claims.

The spokesman for the US Department of Defense, John Kirby, reiterated that they remain “seriously concerned about this accumulation”, for which they ask Russia to be “more transparent about its intentions”, he said. he said at a press conference on Monday.

More, he insisted that the provocations had to stop, especially since “some Ukrainian soldiers were killed just a few weeks ago”, for which he urged Moscow to “comply with the requirements of the agreement of Minsk “ and “to take measures which reduce, which do not aggravate the tensions on this border and in Crimea.”

Despite the denunciation of this Russian “military accumulation”, Kirby did not specify the number of soldiers who would have gone to the border. Yes he has the European Union, which on Monday expressed its “great concern” at the concentration of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine, which amounted to 150,000 soldiers, which it considers a real risk of military escalation .

For his part, State Department spokesman Ned Price on Monday added Washington’s “deep concern” over Russia’s plans to block foreign warships and government ships in parts of the sea. Black, “including occupied Crimea and the Kerch Strait,” he said in a statement.

According to the State Department, “Russia has a habit of taking aggressive measures against Ukrainian ships and preventing access to Ukrainian ports in the Sea of ​​Azov, affecting Ukraine’s international trade and representing “a further escalation in the countryside in Moscow course to undermine and destabilize Ukraine.“.

These plans are also “of particular concern amid credible reports of Russian troop build-up in occupied Crimea and around Ukraine’s borders, now at levels not seen since the invasion of Russia in 2014,” also confirmed Price on the information provided by Kirby.

Finally, the State Department spokesman praised Ukraine’s attitude of not responding to provocations from its neighbor and urged Russia to end harassment of ships in the region. and reverse your concentration of forces along the border and in occupied Crimea.

For his part, 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”.

With information from Europa Press

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