Merkel ordered Putin to leave the Ukrainian border

Ukraine issued a warning in late March after noticing a significant increase in Russian military presence on the Russian side of the Donetsk Basin and the proliferation of Moscow-backed separatists in the region. Already this weekend, Washington pledged to support Ukrainian forces in Kiev, and on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed.

“The chancellor has demanded that the connection be stopped in order to avoid escalating the situation,” the German government said in a telephone conversation. Reuters According to the report.

Russia says its forces are not a threat, they are defensive, but they will remain there as long as Moscow is appropriate. The Kremlin has rejected Ukraine’s accusations of a military mobilization aimed at diverting attention from domestic issues ahead of the September parliamentary elections, including the imprisonment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

“This has nothing to do with any prisoner or anyone,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters. He argued that Russia should act with caution when the situation near the border is as tense as in Ukraine.

A senior Kremlin official said on Thursday that Moscow would be forced to defend its citizens in the Donbass under certain circumstances, and that the tense situation would signal the end of an independent Ukraine.

Ukrainian security experts believe that Moscow’s goal is to offer trade concessions in response to increased pressure from Ukraine, France, Germany and the United States, especially via the Nortstream 2 (Nortstream-2) gas pipeline. The military action of the Russians is considered a psychological war. About the conflict You can read our analysis here.