It noted the announcement by the leaders of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk that they would evacuate residents of the region to Russia as a so-called precautionary measure in anticipation of a possible Ukrainian attack. “We don’t see any evidence of these allegations,” emphasized Baerbock and Le Drian. “We fear that staged incidents could be misused as a pretext for a possible military escalation.” Baerbock has previously warned that Russia may be looking for an excuse to intervene in Ukraine.
It is regrettable that the separatists did not want to attend a special session of the so-called Trilateral Contact Group, which the OSCE had convened. Baerbock and Le Drian once again expressed “extreme concern” about the Russian troop deployment and called on Moscow to “substantially withdraw” military forces from the vicinity of the Ukrainian border.