In contact with the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, confirmed that the Ukrainian authorities were taking a harmful approach to undermining the Minsk Agreements and fuelling tension in the Donbass conflict zone.

In a statement, the Kremlin stated that Putin and Johnson today made a telephone call, with the British Prime Minister "like other Western leaders expressing his concern at the alleged large movements of Russian troops near the border with Ukraine."

The statement read that "Putin has highlighted in detail the preliminary estimates of the current situation around Ukraine," referring to "precise examples of the harmful approach, taken by Kiev, to undermine the Minsk Agreements, which are an irreplaceable basis for the settlement of the Ukrainian internal crisis."

During the contact, Putin pointed out that "the Ukrainian authorities deliberately support the situation on the line of contact where heavy weapons and no-go strike marches are used in the conflict zone in accordance with the Minsk package."

Putin also stressed the Government's policy of discrimination against the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine in Kiev.

He stressed that "all these developments are taking place against the backdrop of intense military concentration by NATO States in the territory of Ukraine, which poses a direct threat to Russia's security."

In the meantime, Putin referred to "the need to launch immediate negotiations with a view to establishing clear international legal agreements that would enslave any subsequent NATO advance to the East and its deployment of weapons threatening Russia in neighbouring States, particularly in Ukraine," adding that "the Russian side will present relevant draft documents."

The Kremlin statement stated that the leaders had agreed to continue examining the issues addressed through various channels.