Germany, France, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine are calling on Russia to withdraw its troops

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have “common concerns about the concentration of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine and in illegally annexed Crimea. They called for a reduction in this increase in .

Zelensky, meanwhile, also called for a summit to be held between him, Merkel, Makron, and Russian President Vladimir Putin to ease tensions with Moscow.

“I want to bring the four of us together to discuss” the security situation in eastern Ukraine and the deoccupation of our territories, “Zelensky said after talks in Paris with Makron, in which Merkel participated via video.

He also said he hoped to restore the ceasefire in Donbass next week.

The presidents of Lithuania and Poland, Gitan Nauseda and Andrzej Duda, also called on Russia on Friday to withdraw troops from the Ukrainian border immediately.

“We call on Russia to withdraw its forces from the Ukrainian-Russian border without delay, to implement the Minsk agreement and to cooperate with Ukraine in compliance with international law and mutual respect,” the Lithuanian president said.

The leaders of the two countries discussed the situation in Ukraine in a telephone conversation and discussed joint actions at the level of NATO, the European Union (EU) and the region to prevent Russia from escalating tensions.

The meeting also touched on next week’s climate summit in Washington, D.C., and in this context Nauseda mentioned the construction of the Astravjec nuclear power plant on the Lithuanian border in Belarus, which Lithuania has criticized as unsafe, stressing the need to comply with international nuclear safety and environmental protection requirements.

The Presidents of Lithuania and Poland have also discussed the pandemic situation in both countries and the course of vaccination.

Russia expels Polish diplomats

Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Friday that Moscow will expel five Polish diplomats in response to the expulsion of three Russian diplomats from Poland.

“We have noticed the speed with which Warsaw is playing the game of the US administration, demanding the departure of three Russian diplomats,” the ministry said in a statement. “In response, five Polish diplomats will be expelled from Russia.”

On Thursday, Poland declared three Russian diplomats undesirable and expressed solidarity with the steps taken by the United States against Russia.

Three diplomats working at the Russian Embassy in Warsaw are being expelled for violating the conditions of their diplomatic status and for actions detrimental to Poland.

The Polish Foreign Ministry also said it expressed “full solidarity” with the steps taken by the United States against Russia on Thursday, imposing new sanctions on Moscow and expelling diplomats.

“The decisions taken jointly by the Allies are the most appropriate response to Russia’s hostile actions,” the ministry said.

Already reportedly punishing Russia for cyber attacks, electoral interference and other hostile acts, the United States on Thursday announced new sanctions against Moscow and the expulsion of ten Russian diplomats.

The order of US President Joe Biden “sends a signal that the United States will force Russia to pay in a strategically and economically influential way if it continues or escalates its destabilizing activities,” the White House said.

Sanctions were targeted at 32 individuals and legal entities and ten Russian diplomats were expelled from the United States, the White House said.

According to a White House statement, five of these diplomats are Russian secret services.

“The Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on 32 individuals and legal entities who have conducted Russian government-led attempts to influence the US elections in 2020, as well as other disinformation and interference,” the White House said in a statement.

Sanctions were imposed on 16 natural persons and 16 legal entities. The list of sanctions includes six Russian technology companies that provide support to Russian special services that carried out a hacker attack on SolarWinds, which is called the most dangerous cyber attack in US history.

Sanctions have also been imposed on four propaganda sites run by special services, which are claimed to be media – SouthFront, NewsFront, Strategic Culture Foundation (SCF) and InfoRos.

Sanctions are also a response to “abusive cyber-activities against the United States and its allies and partners, as well as Russia’s crackdown on dissidents and journalists outside its borders and the undermining of the security of countries important to US national security.”

In addition, the Ministry of Finance, together with the European Union, Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada, imposes sanctions on eight individuals and legal entities involved in the occupation of Crimea.

U.S. banks will also be banned from trading Russian government bonds. The US Treasury Department has issued a directive prohibiting financial institutions from participating in the placement of rubles or non-rubles in the primary market. According to the US media, this applies to bonds issued by the Central Bank of Russia, the National Welfare Fund and the Ministry of Finance after June 14, 2021.

A directive from the US Treasury Department allows the US government to extend sanctions to Russia’s public debt if necessary.

Russia In February 2014, it occupied the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula. Since April 2014, Moscow-backed and armed militants, saboteurs and soldiers of Russian regular units have also occupied large areas in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of eastern Ukraine.

In the conflict in eastern Ukraine, 13,000 people have lost their lives and almost three million have fled.

It is not clear why Russia has now withdrawn its troops at Ukraine’s borders. Russia may want to test how much support the new US administration is willing to give Ukraine, or it may want to divert public attention from domestic policy issues ahead of the parliamentary elections in September with a new crisis. But it is also possible that Russia is planning a major offensive with Kremlin-backed militant gangs in Eastern Ukraine, which would be the most dangerous scenario.

The Kremlin has not denied the transfer of troops, but stressed that Russia is not threatening anyone. Moscow claims to be only responding to provocations in Kiev.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said this week that troops drawn at Ukraine’s borders were taking part in military exercises, but US diplomats questioned it.

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