Kremlin urges Macron, Merkel to ease Ukraine’s ‘provocations’

The Kremlin yesterday called on French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to encourage Ukraine to observe ceasefire agreements in its conflict with pro-Russian separatists.

Macron and Merkel were scheduled to hold talks yesterday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a show of support, as concerns mount in the West over the deployment of Russian troops to Ukraine's border.

The build-up on the northern and eastern borders, as well as on the Crimean peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014, comes amid a spike in violence along the front line between pro-Russia separatists and Ukrainian forces in the east of the country.

The German and French leaders should communicate to the Ukrainian leadership the "need to decisively stop any provocative actions on the contact line and emphasise the need for an unconditional observance of the ceasefire regime," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"There are fewer reports of ceasefire violations coming, and indeed the number of violations has decreased," Peskov noted.

But he added that it was necessary to continue "scrupulously monitoring the situation".

Ukraine's foreign minister said earlier this week that Russia was "openly threatening Ukraine with war" and vowed a coordinated military response with its allies to aggression orchestrated by Moscow.

The fresh bout of clashes in eastern Ukraine effectively ended a ceasefire agreed last July that ushered in a period of relative calm to the conflict.

The fighting, which has claimed more than 13,000 lives, has seen 28 Ukrainian soldiers killed since the start of the year compared to 50 in all of 2020