Joe Biden and Angela Merkel called on Russia to reduce its military presence on the border with Ukraine

The american president Joe Biden and German Chancellor Angela Merkel jointly called on Russia on Wednesday to cut troops on Ukrainian border, taking into account the increase in ground tension.

In a telephone interview, the two leaders agreed that a positive reception from Moscow would help to allow a “de-escalation” of the situation, said the spokesperson for Merkel it is a statement.

The statements are in line with those made by the foreign ministers of the two countries as well as their G7 counterparts, who called on Tuesday in a joint statement that Russia “cease its provocations” and “reduce tensions” in the region. “These large-scale troop movements, without prior notification, represent threatening and destabilizing activities,” said the diplomatic leaders of the powers with European Chancellor Josep Borrell.

In particular, they asked the government of Vladimir Putin to respect the principles and commitments of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that it has signed on the transparency of military movements and to respond to the established procedure. in Chapter III (Risk Reduction) of the Vienna Document on Confidence and Security Building Measures.

The accumulation in recent days of Russian troops and artillery near the Ukrainian border and in the Crimean peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014, has generated unrest in western countries. At a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna, the United States assured that Russia had sent between 15,000 and 25,000 troops. in addition to borders.

“Russia now has more troops stationed at the border with Ukraine than at any time since 2014», Assured the American representative to the OSCE, Courtney Austrian.

The actions also sparked a phone call between Biden and Putin, in which the US president “underscored the United States’ unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” and offered a summit between the two leaders of a third country “in the coming months”.

During this call, Putin described – according to the Kremlin – the proposals for a political solution to the Ukrainian conflict, on the basis of the 2015 Minsk accords that Russia concluded with France, Germany and Ukraine, but whose political component has never been applied.

The call between the two leaders This happened when Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba met senior officials from NATO countries in Brussels., including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Transatlantic Alliance Leader Jens Stoltenberg.

“Russia must put an end to this rise in military power in and around Ukraine, stop its provocations and immediately reduce the escalation.”Stoltenberg said, calling the concentration of Russian troops “unwarranted, inexplicable and deeply disturbing”.

The secretary of state also met with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and both expressed concern over the movement of Russian troops, according to a European statement.

Russia, in the meantime, he assured that “nobody” wanted a war in Ukraine, but warned NATO not to get more involved in the region. and accused Western countries of turning the region into a “barrel of powder”.

“The United States and other NATO countries are deliberately turning Ukraine into a powder keg, ”said Deputy Foreign Minister.Sergei Ryabkov, quoted by Russian news agencies, added that countries were increasing their arms deliveries to Ukraine.

“If there are aggravating circumstances, we will of course do everything possible to ensure our safety and that of our citizens, wherever they are,” Ryabkov said.

Ukraine, which fears the Kremlin is looking for a pretext to attack it, accuses Russia of concentrate more than 80,000 soldiers near its eastern border and in the Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014. According to the latest estimates, some 41,000 Russian troops are in eastern Ukraine, said Monday at AFP Presidential spokesperson Yulia Mendel. In Crimea, 9,000 soldiers were recently added to the 33,000 already presenthe added.

Ukrainian President Volodomir Zelensky requested a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on March 26, but has yet to receive a response, Mendel said.

Ukrainian forces have been fighting pro-Russian separatist rebels, organized in the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (unrecognized by the international community), since 2014, when Russia invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula and began supporting the separatists of the region. More than 14,000 people have died in the conflict and attempts to reach a negotiated solution have so far failed..

With information from AFP and EFE

KEEP READING: