Ukraine crisis: World leaders step up talks amid invasion fears

Story By: BBC

World leaders are stepping up efforts to reduce tensions over Ukraine as fears of a Russian invasion grow.

French President Emmanuel Macron is meeting Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow, while US President Joe Biden hosts German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Washington.

Russia currently has more than 100,000 troops massed on Ukraine’s borders.

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Western powers accuse the country of planning an invasion, something Russia has repeatedly denied.

US officials said on Sunday that Russia has assembled 70% of military forces needed for a full-scale invasion.

In recent weeks, Moscow has demanded that the Western military alliance Nato ban Ukraine from ever becoming a member, and that the group cuts its troop numbers in eastern Europe.

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Nato has rejected both demands. It has instead suggested talks on other areas, such as limiting nuclear weapons.

The tensions between Russia, Ukraine and the West come nearly eight years after Russia annexed Ukraine’s southern Crimea peninsula and backed a bloody rebellion in the eastern Donbas region.

Moscow accuses the Ukrainian government of failing to implement the Minsk agreement – an international deal sponsored by Germany and France to restore peace to the east, where Russian-backed rebels control swathes of territory and at least 14,000 people have been killed since 2014.

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