BRUSSELS (AP) – The European Union’s foreign policy chief said on Monday that in the face of the large military accumulation of Russian troops near Ukraine’s borders, it would only take “a spark” to start a confrontation.
In a boring assessment of relations with Moscow, Josep Borrell also said that the condition of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny he was “critical” and that the group of 27 nations held the Kremlin responsible for its health and safety.
Despite the events, Borrell said after a virtual meeting of EU foreign ministers that, “for the time being, there is no movement in the field of more sanctions” to be imposed on Russia.
He also said there was no request for a synchronized diplomatic movement of EU expulsions in the confrontation between the Czech Republic, an EU member state, and Russia following Prague’s accusation that Moscow was involved in a 2014 ammunition depot explosion.
More dangerous at the time, Borrell said, was the overcrowding of Russian troops, including field military hospitals, and “all sorts of wars.”
“It is the highest military deployment of the Russian army on the Ukrainian borders ever. It is clear that it is a cause for concern when you deploy many troops “, said Borrell. “Well, a spark can jump here or there.”
Borrell initially told reporters that “there are more than 150,000 Russian soldiers massing on the borders of Ukraine and Crimea,” and doubled the figure later before his services had to correct him in the transcript, saying the actual figure exceeded 100,000.
However, Borrell said “the risk of a new escalation is obvious.”
Borrell refused to say where he got the starting number of 150,000 Russian troops, but called it “my benchmark.” It exceeded 110,000 estimates provided on Wednesday by Ukrainian Defense Minister Andriy Taran.
More than 14,000 people have died in seven years of fighting between Ukrainian and Russian-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine that erupted after Russia’s annexation of the Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. The EU has strongly opposed annexation, but has been unable to do anything about it.
Efforts to reach a political agreement have stalled and violations of an unstable truce have become increasingly frequent in recent weeks in the industrial zone of eastern Ukraine, known as the Donbas.
Diplomats had hoped there would be little or no possibility of further immediate sanctions in Moscow, but now they will try to apply more pressure through diplomacy.
“Moscow must move from provocation to cooperation,” said German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.
And over the weekend, French President Emmanuel Macron said that while dialogue with Russia is essential, “clear red lines” must also be drawn that could lead to possible sanctions with Moscow on Ukraine.
“All in all, relations with Russia are not improving, but on the contrary, tension is rising on different fronts,” Borrell said.
“We call on Russia to withdraw its troops,” Borrell said.