Ukraine says Russia has moved 80,000 troops to border and Crimea, and Putin won't talk - CBS News

Moscow — Ukraine's government said on Monday that requests by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to speak with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin about the escalating conflict in eastern Ukraine had been ignored.

Tension between the neighbors has grown steadily for several weeks, with intensified skirmishes in eastern Ukraine — a region that has been mired in conflict since Russia first backed Ukrainian separatists there seven years ago.

Mendel said Russia had massed more than 40,000 troops on Ukraine's eastern border, and more than 40,000 in Crimea, the region that Putin unilaterally annexed away from Ukraine and declared Russian in 2014.

Mendel said Zelenskyy would travel to Paris for talks this week on Russia's actions and the escalating conflict in Ukraine's eastern Donbass region, Reuters reported.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned Russia against aggressive actions, accusing Putin's military of massing more forces near the Ukrainian border than at any time since 2014.

The Kremlin has said that Russian and Ukrainian political advisers are working to organize a possible new round of talks under the so-called Normandy format — a multilateral dialogue that would involve the leaders of France and Germany.

The Kremlin has repeatedly said that Russia's military forces are free to move around within the country's territory as they see fit, and that the troop movements near the Ukrainian border — exercises, according to Moscow — pose no threat.

Since then, peace talks have been stalled, with Russia and Ukraine failing to find any new common ground