Moscow, Russia | AFP | Russian President Vladimir Putin called allegations that Russia is preparing an invasion of Ukraine “provocative speculation” during a conversation with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Saturday, the Kremlin said in a statement.
“Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron discussed […] provocative speculation related to an alleged Russian ‘invasion’ of Ukraine, which is accompanied by significant deliveries of modern weapons to that country,” the Russian presidency said in a statement.
The Kremlin considers that these accusations and these military means create “preconditions for possible aggressive actions by Ukrainian forces in Donbas”, a region in eastern Ukraine where Russia has supported armed separatists for eight years.
Putin complained again that the United States and NATO refuse to accept “Russian initiatives” to lower tensions, that is, that the Alliance offers guarantees that it will not expand to the east or incorporate Ukraine and that it operates withdrawals from its military means in Western Europe.
The Kremlin again accused Kiev of torpedoing the peace process in the Donbas war and indicated that both Macron and Putin want to continue dialogue.
For his part, Macron reiterated to Putin that Westerners are “determined to react” if the Russian armed forces carry out an operation in Ukraine, the French presidency said.
The United States affirmed that Russia could invade Ukraine imminently, after having concentrated more than 100,000 soldiers on the border with Ukraine, in addition to carrying out maneuvers in the Black Sea and in Belarus, de facto surrounding its pro-Western neighbor.
But Russia, which annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014, continues to deny any warlike intentions towards Ukraine.
