US President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf ScholzBERLIN, Feb 17German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and US President Joe Biden had a telephone conversation on Wednesday, noting that the situation around Ukraine remains serious, there is no significant withdrawal of Russian troops from the Ukrainian borders, a representative of the German Cabinet of Ministers told reporters. and US President Joe Biden exchanged views on the situation in and around Ukraine. Both were unanimous that the situation in the region, due to the large-scale accumulation of Russian troops in the areas bordering Ukraine, should be assessed as extremely serious. The risk of further Russian military aggression against Ukraine remains, it is necessary extreme vigilance, a significant withdrawal of Russian troops has not yet been observed,» a representative of the Cabinet of Ministers said. Western states have recently expressed concern about Russia's allegedly dangerous actions near the borders of Ukraine. Moscow has repeatedly rejected such accusations, saying that it does not threaten anyone and is not going to attack anyone, and statements about «Russian aggression» are used as a pretext to deploy more NATO military equipment near Russian borders. Unsubstantiated allegations that Russia is preparing provocations continue to come from the West, despite the return of Russian troops to their places of deployment after the exercises. On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. At a meeting with Putin, the head of the RF Ministry of Defense reported that «some of the exercises are coming to an end, some will be completed in the near future.» The Southern and Western military districts of the Russian Federation have begun returning troops to their places of deployment, Major General Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, told reporters on Tuesday. Britain accuses Russia of building up troops on the border with Ukraine
