The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, speaks during a videoconference meeting with EU Foreign Ministers to discuss the situation in Ukraine, at the European Council in Brussels, Belgium, on April 19, 2021. Francois Walschaerts / Pool via REUTERS
Russia has concentrated more than 150,000 troops on Ukraine’s border and annexed Crimea, EU top diplomat Josep Borrell said on Monday after EU foreign ministers were briefed by the country’s foreign minister. Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
“More than 150,000 Russian soldiers are piling up on Ukrainian borders and in Crimea. The risk of a new escalation is obvious,” said Borrell, who declined to give a source for the figure.
He said no economic sanctions or expulsions of Russian diplomats had been planned at the moment, although he said the military build-up on Ukraine’s borders was the largest in history.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, after addressing EU foreign ministers, called on the EU to impose new sanctions on Russia.
Tensions between Moscow and Kiev have been rising amid military build-up and clashes in eastern Ukraine between the army and pro-Russian separatists.
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