Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Saturday said it was important to stay “vigilant and firm” during negotiations with Moscow amid rising fears of a Russian invasion.
The Kremlin has deployed over 100,000 troops and heavy armor along Ukraine’s borders, according to the West, which fears that the Kremlin will stage an incursion.
During a phone conversation with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian, Kuleba thanked Paris for the decision not to evacuate the families of its diplomatic staff in Kyiv, the Ukrainian foreign ministry said.
The sides “stressed the importance of being vigilant and firm in contacts with the Russian side”, the ministry’s statement said, as well as continuing “to promote a political and diplomatic settlement” of the conflict between Kyiv and Moscow.
Both Kuleba and Le Drian underlined the need to “refrain from steps that could fuel anxiety” in Ukrainian society and “undermine the financial stability” of the post-Soviet country, according to the statement.
Le Drian is expected to visit Ukraine together with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock on Feb. 7-8.
Kyiv said that Le Drian and Baerbock are planning a trip to the frontline area in the east of Ukraine where Kyiv troops have been battling with Russian-backed separatists for almost eight years.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday called on the West to avoid creating “panic” in the face of the Russian troop buildup on Ukraine’s border.
The US, Britain and Australia recently angered Kyiv by ordering the families of diplomats to leave their embassies in Ukraine.
The conflict with Russian-backed separatists has cost over 13,000 lives since 2014.
Moscow seized the Crimea peninsula the same year.
© Agence France-Presse
