Ukraine calls for urgent meeting with Russia, other states on border troop buildup

By Merve Aydogan

ANKARA (AA) – Ukraine’s foreign minister on Sunday called on Russia and all participating states to hold a meeting within the next 48 hours to discuss Moscow’s military buildup along its borders.

On Twitter, Dmytro Kuleba wrote in English, "Russia failed to respond to our request under the Vienna Document," adding that Kyiv is now taking the next step, which is a request for a meeting.

"We request a meeting with Russia and all participating states within 48 hours to discuss its reinforcement & redeployment along our border & in temporarily occupied Crimea," he said, referring to the conflict-torn eastern Donbas region, partially occupied by Russian-backed separatists since 2014.

Kuleba made a similar request on Friday, but got no response from Russia.

He further called on Moscow to "fulfill its commitment to military transparency in order to de-escalate tensions and enhance security for all" if it is "serious when it talks about the indivisibility of security in the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) space."

The over 100,000 Russian troops along Ukraine’s border have led to fears of an invasion, with the US saying on Friday that one could come “at any time.” Russia has denied it has plans to invade, saying instead that its troops are carrying out military exercises.

Ukraine has been plagued by conflict in its eastern regions since March 2014, following Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea.

Russia has also accused Western countries of undermining its security by NATO’s expansion towards its borders.

The Kremlin also issued a list of security demands to the West, including a rollback of troop deployments from some ex-Soviet states, and guarantees that Ukraine and Georgia would not join NATO.​​​​​​​