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Russia says it’s worried about building up Ukraine’s army

ANTD.VN – Russia on Wednesday expressed concern about Ukraine’s military build-up near the separatist conflict zone in the country’s east, a statement that comes amid concerns between Ukraine and the West about a potential conflict between Ukraine and the West. Moscow’s alleged plan to invade the neighboring country.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the concentration of Ukrainian troops looked “alarming”, adding that he would raise the issue during a ministerial meeting in Stockholm of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Europe on Thursday.

He again attacked Ukraine for not meeting its obligations under a 2015 peace agreement signed in Minsk brokered by France and Germany.

“Kyiv has become increasingly insolent in the face of its aggression towards the Minsk agreements, the Russian Federation and in an attempt to incite the West to support its military ambitions,” Lavrov said. Russian Senate.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Foreign Minister Lavrov is expected to meet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the meeting.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Ukraine has amassed about 125,000 troops – or half of its own – near the conflict zone. She also pointed to the increasing number of ceasefire violations in the east.

The statement by Russian diplomats follows concerns by Ukrainian and Western officials about Russia’s military build-up near Ukraine, which they say could signal Moscow’s plans to invade its former Soviet neighbor. .

NATO foreign ministers on Tuesday warned Russia that any attempt to further destabilize Ukraine would be an expensive mistake.

The Kremlin insists there is no such intention and accuses Ukraine and its Western supporters of making statements intended to cover up their own alleged aggressive designs.

Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014 after the country’s Kremlin-friendly president was ousted from power by mass protests that also gave weight to the outbreak of a separatist insurgency. in the industrial center of eastern Ukraine called Donbas. More than 14,000 people died in the fighting.

Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of sending troops and weapons to back the rebels. Moscow denies that and alleges that the Russians who joined the separatists were volunteers.

In his speech Wednesday to parliament, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for talks with Russia to end the conflict in the east.

“We have to tell the truth – we will not be able to stop the war without direct negotiations with Russia,” Zelenskyy said. “We’re not afraid of a face-to-face dialogue.”

The Kremlin responded by reaffirming its longstanding position that Russia is not a party to the conflict in eastern Ukraine, describing the fighting in the east as a civil war. It stressed that it expects Kyiv to meet its obligations under the 2015 Minsk agreement.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “The war in Donbas is Ukraine’s internal affair. “We know about efforts to bring Russia into the conflict, but that is not the case. The war in Donbas can only be ended through negotiations between the Ukrainians.”

Peskov said that the concentration of Ukrainian troops in the Donbas could herald an attempt by Kyiv to regain control of rebel-held territory.

“It worries us that the tendency to solve the Donbas problem by force may prevail,” Peskov said. “It’s a very dangerous venture capitalism.”

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Yuras Karmanau of Kyiv, Ukraine contributed to this report.

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