PARIS (AP) – The leaders of France and Germany are demanding the withdrawal of Russian troop reinforcements recently deployed on the border with Ukraine, the German Chancellor’s office said Friday after the two heads of state held security talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy met French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Friday, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel joined them via conference call. The Ukrainian president is trying to get support from the European Union and NATO amid mounting tensions between his country and neighboring Russia.
Merkel’s office said the three spoke about “the security situation along the Ukrainian-Russian border, as well as in eastern Ukraine. They shared their concerns about the build-up of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine … They demanded the withdrawal of these troop reinforcements in order to bring about a de-escalation of the situation. “
According to French and German officials, Macron and Merkel underscored their support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The talks come as Ukraine and the West have raised the alarm in recent weeks about the concentration of troops along Russia’s western border, an accumulation that the US and NATO have described as the largest there since 2014. Ukrainian armed forces and Russian-backed separatists have claimed fought. in Eastern Ukraine for seven years.
“We hope that President Zelenskyy’s visit will give new impetus” to negotiations with both Russia and Ukraine and ultimately a political solution to the conflict, said a French official in the French Presidency, speaking on condition of anonymity. the meeting.
“We are trying to understand positions and tensions and see how we can figure out the narrow paths between (different) positions,” said the official.
France and Germany, which helped negotiate a peace agreement signed in February 2015 in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, are preparing more talks involving the leaders of Ukraine and Russia.
Their last meeting, which took place in Paris in December 2019, helped ease tensions but failed to move forward with a political resolution that would end the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Zelenskyy called on France and Germany to take action. “They always support our integrity, our sovereignty … But I said very directly and very honestly that we need to act very quickly now,” the Ukrainian leader said at a press conference.
“I think it is not only our problem, but also the security of Europe,” said Zelenskyy.
Commenting on a possible meeting between US President Joe Biden and Russian Vladimir Putin, Zelenskyy said, “When there is a dialogue, the canons are silent.”
“I think it could help solve some problems … If such important countries don’t talk, others suffer,” he added.
In an appeal with Putin this week, Biden expressed concern about the Russian build-up and called on Russia to ease tensions. The Biden government put pressure on Russia on Thursday and announced a series of new sanctions
More than 14,000 people died in the fighting in Eastern Ukraine, which erupted after Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian Crimea peninsula in 2014. Violations of a shaky truce have become more common in recent weeks.
The Kremlin said it hoped Macron and Merkel would convince Zelenskyy to abide by the ceasefire agreement and implement a 2015 peace agreement for eastern Ukraine signed in Minsk, the capital of Belarus.
The Kremlin expects the French and German leaders to “use their influence and convey the need to resolutely stop taking provocative actions along the line of control and emphasize the importance of unconditional observation of the ceasefire,” said Dmitry. Peskov, Putin’s spokesman. Friday.
Major General Victor Hanushchyak, deputy commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Joint Operation in the east of the country, said the likely goal of Russia’s recent actions is “to intensify efforts to reintegrate the temporarily occupied territories under prevent separatist control ”.
Despite what he described as increased shelling along the front lines and a military build-up on the Russian-backed side, Hanushchyak said that “there has been no sign of direct preparation of the enemy for active offensive action.”
In the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka, close to the front line with the separatist-controlled area, Vitaly Barabash, head of the local military-civil administration, told the AP Friday that “people are hearing shots, it’s not passing, people are a little scared. .. but don’t panic. “
AP Journalists Dmytro in Avdiivka, Ukraine, and Frank Jordans in Berlin, Germany contributed to the story.