German Foreign Minister called "extremely alarming" escalation in the border region of Russia and Ukraine | News from Germany about Germany

Reports of the movement of Russian troops near the border with Ukraine are extremely worrying, he said. O. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. Speaking at an event of the Körber Foundation in Berlin on Tuesday, November 23, he stressed that the EU countries will continue to speak on this issue with a unified position.

“We want better relations with Russia – they can only get better,” said the German Social Democrat. This requires progress in resolving the conflict in eastern Ukraine, he further emphasized. At the same time, Mas criticized the position of Moscow, which earlier did not agree to hold a meeting in the “Normandy format”, which includes Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine. Now the Russian leadership must take the first steps, he stressed.

Messages about the movements of Russian troops near Ukraine

On November 12, the EU expressed concern over reports of Russian troop movements near the border with Ukraine. “We continue to monitor the situation, and the information we have gathered so far is alarming,” said EU Foreign Policy Spokesman Peter Stano, adding that the European Union is “ready to explore further steps” with partners including the US and the UK.

Information about the activity of the Russian army near the border with Ukraine appeared on October 30 in the American newspaper The Washington Post. The publication said that recently videos have been posted on social networks that show the movement of Russian military equipment in the border areas. On November 1, Politico magazine published satellite images of the area near the village of Yelnya in the Smolensk region, possibly confirming information about the concentration of Russian army units there. The Smolensk region borders on Belarus, but does not adjoin Ukraine.

In turn, the Kremlin said that the movement of Russian military equipment across the territory of Russia is an exclusively internal affair of the Russian Federation.

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