Germany concerned about build-up of Russian troops near border with Ukraine

"The federal government shares this concern and informed Moscow about it on April 3," government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer said at a briefing on April 7, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

She also recalled a joint statement by Berlin and Paris in which the parties expressed concern about the increase in ceasefire violations in eastern Ukraine and called for "restraint".

At the same time, German Foreign Ministry spokesman Christofer Burger said that the German side had repeatedly called on Russia to hold talks in the Normandy format at the level of foreign ministers. According to him, steps to de-escalate the situation through the use of existing formats are a top priority. "Steps to implement the Minsk [Agreements] are not the ones we could be satisfied with," he said.

The government spokeswoman also stressed that for Germany, as for all NATO member states, Ukraine is a respected long-term partner of the Alliance, which last year was granted the status of Enhanced Opportunities Partner, testifying to a particularly close partnership. Germany supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

On April 1, it became known that the United States European Command had raised its alert status to the highest level after the occupiers in eastern Ukraine violated the ceasefire and killed four Ukrainian servicemen, while Russia began pulling troops to the border with Ukraine.

According to intelligence data, the Russian side pulled 28 battalion tactical groups to the state border of Ukraine.

ol