Kiev on Sunday demanded a meeting within the next 48 hours with Russia and countries participating in the Vienna Document of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe after Moscow ignored a deadline to respond in detail on military activities along the Ukrainian border.
“Russia did not respond to our request on the Vienna Document” on measures aimed at building confidence and security that Ukraine submitted last Friday and whose deadline expired today, Ukrainian diplomat Dmytro Kuleba said in a tweet on the social networking site Twitter. “We demand a meeting with Russia and all participating countries within 48 hours to discuss reinforcements and redeployments along our borders and in the temporarily occupied Crimea,” the minister added.
Kuleba stressed that Russia must fulfill its commitments to military transparency to reduce tension and improve security for all if it is to talk seriously about indivisible security within the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Ukraine on Friday invoked the Vienna Document on Risk Reduction, and demanded that Russia provide detailed explanations about military activities near the Ukrainian border, amassing more than 100,000 soldiers, according to Kiev and NATO. “We officially rely on the risk reduction mechanism and demand that Russia provide detailed explanations about military activities in the areas bordering Ukraine and the temporarily occupied Crimea,” Dmytro Kuleba wrote on the social network Twitter.
The 2011 Vienna Document on Confidence and Security Building Measures is binding and applicable to all OSCE members.
Since Thursday, Russia and Belarus have conducted joint military exercises on Belarusian soil, a few kilometers from Kiev. It is scheduled to continue these exercises until the 20th. Russia also began last Thursday naval exercises in the Black Sea.
Tensions between Kiev and Moscow have risen since last November after Russia deployed more than 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian border, which has raised concerns in Ukraine and the West, who have denounced preparations for an invasion of the former Soviet republic.
Last December, Russia demanded mandatory security guarantees from the United States and NATO to prevent NATO from expanding eastward and deploying offensive weapons near its borders.
Moscow recently wrote a letter to all OSCE member states asking them to take a position on what they mean by indivisible security in Europe.
Despite all diplomatic efforts, a de-escalation of military tension and tension has not yet been achieved.
Russia claims that it has the sovereign right to deploy troops anywhere on its territory, and in turn owes the massive supply of weapons to Ukraine by the West.
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