Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a request for negotiations over a build-up of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border with the Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Moscow, however, said its soldiers were on its own territory, unlike U.S. forces in the region.
This was reported by Reuters with reference to the press secretary of the head of the Ukrainian state Julia Mendel.
According to Reuters, Julia Mendel, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s spokeswoman, told Reuters on Monday the leader had tried and so far failed to speak to Putin about the matter.
“The President’s Office, of course, made a request to speak with Vladimir Putin. We have not received an answer yet and we very much hope that this is not a refusal of dialogue,” said Mendel.
In response, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had not seen such a request for talks “in recent days” and was unaware one had been recently made.
According to Mendel, there are more than 40,000 troops deployed on Ukraine’s eastern border and over 40,000 troops in Crimea; around 50,000 of all those soldiers were new deployments. Russia reacted to the questions about its military activity on the Ukrainian-Russian border.
“Questions are being asked about what Russia is doing on the border with Ukraine,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “The answer is very simple. We live there, it’s our country. But what is the United States doing thousands of kilometers from its own territory with its warships and troops in Ukraine?”