BRUSSELS (BELGIUM) – The office of the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell has informed that more than 100,000 Russian troops have massed on Ukraine’s border and in annexed Crimea. The EU foreign ministers were briefed by Ukraine’s foreign minister regarding the same.
In a press conference on Monday, Borrell had originally spoken of more than 150,000 troops, but his office later corrected the number to more than 100,000 and declined to give a source for the figure or a reason for the change.
Borrell said no new economic sanctions or expulsions of Russian diplomats were planned for the time being, despite saying that the military build-up on Ukraine’s borders was the largest ever.
The United States also expressed its “deep concern” over Russia’s plans to block foreign naval ships and other vessels in parts of the Black Sea, State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement. “This represents yet another unprovoked escalation in Moscow’s ongoing campaign to undermine and destabilise Ukraine,” he said.
Russia has temporarily restricted the movement of foreign warships and what it called “other state ships” near Crimea.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, after addressing EU foreign ministers, called on the EU to impose new sanctions on Russia.
Tensions between Moscow and Kyiv have been rising amid the military build-up and clashes in eastern Ukraine between the army and pro-Russian separatists.