Iran Press/ Europe: Fears of a new war in Europe resurged on Thursday as violence spiked in a long-running standoff in eastern Ukraine that some worried could provide the spark for a wider conflict.
Separatists in the Luhansk region reported an increase in Ukrainian government shelling along the tense contact line.
Ukraine disputed the claim, saying separatists had shelled its forces, but they didn't fire back.
The head of the monitoring mission for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Yasar Halit Cevik, said it reported 500 explosions along the contact line from Wednesday evening to Thursday.
Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov countered with the same: "We have repeatedly warned that the excessive concentration of Ukrainian armed forces in the immediate vicinity of the line of demarcation, coupled with possible provocations, could pose a terrible danger."
A 2015 deal brokered by France and Germany helped end the worst of the fighting, but regular skirmishes have continued, and a political settlement has stalled.
Blinken, Lavrov to meet next week if ...
As US Secretary of State Antony Blinkensaid earlier on Thursday, he had sent a letter to his Russian counterpart proposing a meeting next week in Europe.
"Blinken will meet Lavrov next week provided there is no further Russian invasion of Ukraine," According to the US State Department.
Meanwhile, US officials held discussions with Saudi Arabia about a "collaborative approach" to managing potential market pressures stemming from a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, the White House said.
World dignitaries have raced for solutions, but suspicions between East and West only seemed to grow, as NATO allies rejected Russian assertions, it was pulling back troops from exercises that had fuelled fears of an attack.
Russia is believed to have built up some 150,000 military forces around Ukraine's borders.
Concerns escalated in the West over what exactly Russia is doing with those troops — including an estimated 60 percent of the overall Russian ground forces.
The Kremlin insists it has no plans to invade but has long considered Ukraine its sphere of influence and NATO's eastward expansion an existential threat.
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Russia says pulls back some troops along Ukraine's border
