The United States, Germany and France are concerned about the growing number of ceasefire violations in eastern Ukraine.



Paris and Berlin stated in a joint statement by the Foreign Ministries of the two countries, released on April 3. The document notes that tensions are increasing after a period of some stabilization of the situation since July last year.

"We are closely monitoring the situation, in particular the movements of Russian troops, and call on all parties to exercise restraint and to efforts to de-escalate as soon as possible," the author of the statement emphasised.

The U.S. is also expressing growing alarm over reports that Russian military forces are deploying along their border with Ukraine, as a largely frozen conflict has heated up again in recent months between the Kyiv government and separatist forces in the east strongly back by Moscow.

Top Biden administration officials, including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Mark Milley have all spoken this week with their Ukrainian counterparts to discuss the crisis and offer support, State Department spokesman Ned Price.


US will provide military aid if Russia attacks Ukraine

We are aware of Ukrainian military reports concerning Russian troop movements on Ukraine’s borders, Mr. Price said Thursday. We are discussing our concerns about that increase in tensions and cease-fire violations and regional tensions with NATO allies.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Andrii Taran said Mr. Austin told him that the U.S. will not leave Ukraine alone and will not allow the realization of aggressive aspirations of the Russian Federation towards Ukraine. Chief Pentagon spokesman John Kirby confirmed that Mr. Austin had made the call.

Pentagon officials said they are closely monitoring the fighting, the latest in a grinding seven year civil war that has already left some 11,000 fighters on both sides dead and even more civilian casualties. Mr. Kirby noted that the U.S. has supplied more than $2 billion in military aid to the Kyiv government since the fighting began.


Putin's army position itself at the border with Ukraine

At the end of March, The New York Times reported, citing sources, that approximately 4,000 Russian troops were stationed at various points on the border with Ukraine.

According to the newspaper, the European Command of the US Armed Forces has raised the level of monitoring of the situation from "a possible crisis" to a "potentially imminent crisis" - the highest level. It is a reaction to the fact that Russia did not withdraw its troops after the military exercises ended on March 23.

In the social networks, reports began to appear that Moscow is transferring additional troops to Bryansk, Voronezh and Rostov regions, as well as to the annexed Crimea, the Russian regions which share the border with now Kremlin-occupied Ukrainian territories,  German radio Deutsche Welle reported.