[ad_1]
French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet on February 20 to escalate tensions over Ukraine.
The phone call comes at a time when Western leaders say Russia – which has deployed tens of thousands of troops near Ukraine – is planning a large-scale offensive against Ukraine. Moscow denies plans for invasion.
Meanwhile, the monitoring mission from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) reported a “dramatic increase” in ceasefire violations on the front line between the Ukrainian army and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The OSCE said on February 19 that in just one day there had been 1,500 ceasefire violations in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The same day, Ukraine said two soldiers had been killed in an attack.
Meanwhile, on February 20, Ukraine suspended operations at one of seven separatist-controlled checkpoints in the Donbas region. The military said operations were suspended due to heavy shelling.
The United States says with nearly 150,000 Russian troops on Ukraine’s borders – and almost 190,000 in total, including Russian-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine – Moscow has already decided to invade the neighboring country.
Also, about 30,000 Russian troops are in Belarus for military exercises which are expected to end on February 20.
In Washington, US President Joe Biden, who had previously said he was “convinced” that Russia would work with Ukraine in the coming days, convened the National Security Council on February 20 to discuss the crisis.
top channel
[ad_2]
Source link
