Kiev, Ukraine (AP) – Ukraine’s leader has called for a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the build-up of Russian troops on his country’s border and escalating tensions in eastern Ukraine , but the request has not been answered so far, its spokeswoman said Monday.
The concentration of Russian troops along the border comes amid a wave of ceasefire violations in eastern Ukraine, where separatists and Ukrainian forces taken by Russia have been locked in a conflict since the Moscow’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine in 2014. More than 14,000 people have died in fighting in eastern Ukraine and efforts to negotiate a political agreement have stalled.
“The Kremlin, of course, has the request to speak with Vladimir Putin. So far we have not received any response and we hope that it will not be a refusal to dialogue, “Iuliia Mendel, a spokeswoman for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told The Associated Press. The request was filed on March 26, when four Ukrainian troops were killed in a mortar attack in the east, he added.
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday he had not seen any request from Zelenskyy “in recent days.”
Western and Ukrainian officials have expressed concern over increasingly frequent ceasefire violations in the conflict zone. There have been reports of Ukraine’s military casualties last week and rebels have also reported casualties. On Monday, the Ukrainian army reported that one more soldier was killed, bringing the total to 28 this year.
G-7 foreign ministers in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States said Monday that they are “deeply concerned about the large accumulation of Russian military forces on the borders of Ukraine and Crimea, illegally annexed. ” They said large-scale troop movements were threatening and destabilizing and urged Russia to “stop its provocations.”
Zelenskyy is expected to head to Paris soon to talk about the build-up with French President Emmanuel Macron, Mendel said Monday.
He said Russia has amassed 41,000 troops on the border with eastern Ukraine and 42,000 more in Crimea. Those numbers are likely to grow as troops “keep coming,” he said.
During a call with Putin last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for the removal of reinforcements from Russian troops “to achieve a de-escalation of the situation.”
Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Monday that Germany had followed Russian military build-up along the border with Ukraine very closely, adding that “we are very concerned”.
The Kremlin has claimed that Russia is free to deploy its troops wherever it wants in its territory and has repeatedly accused the Ukrainian military of “provocative actions” along the line of control in the east and plans to regain control of the rebel regions by force. Kremlin officials accused Kiev’s actions of threatening Russia’s security, and warned that Russia could intervene to protect Russian-speakers in the east.
Speaking on a trip to Egypt on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that “the current Kiev regime could resort to reckless actions in an attempt to restore its ratings.”
Amid growing tensions, the United States has notified Turkey that two American warships will sail to the Black Sea on April 14 and 15 and stay there until May 4 and 5.
Russia has long aspired to Ukraine’s aspirations to join NATO and its growing military cooperation with the US and its allies.
Lavrov argued that while Russia was moving troops into its own territory, “the question of what the U.S. ships and military involved in NATO activities in Ukraine do thousands of miles from their territory has been without answer “
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Frank Jordans in Berlin and Sam Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.