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| - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday invited his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to meet in Ukraine's war-torn east as tensions between Kiev and Moscow soar. In recent weeks fighting has intensified between Ukraine's army and pro-Russian separatists controlling two regions in the country's east, raising concerns of a major escalation in the long-running conflict. Ukraine and its Western allies have recently sounded the alarm and accused Russia of massing thousands of military personnel on the northern and eastern borders of the ex-Soviet country. In an address to the nation, Zelensky said that Ukrainian and Russian negotiators had recently discussed plans for officials to travel to the frontlines of the trench conflict to assess the fighting and ceasefire violations. "I am ready to go even further and invite you to meet in any part of the Ukrainian Donbass where war is ongoing," Zelensky said in the address. The Ukrainian president, who was elected in 2019 on promises to end the long-simmering conflict, also accused Russia of participating in peace negotiations while massing troops on Ukraine's border. "A considerable number of Russian troops are concentrated near our border. Officially, Russia calls this military exercises. Unofficially, the whole world calls such things blackmail," the Ukrainian president said. The European Union on Monday estimated the number of Russian troops along the Ukrainian border at more than 100,000 during talks with Ukraine's foreign minister. "The Russian president once said that if a fight is inevitable, you need to hit first. But every leader needs to understand that a fight must not be inevitable when it... concerns a real war and millions of human lives." Kiev has been battling pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions since 2014, following Moscow's annexation of the Crimean peninsula. The conflict, which has claimed more than 13,000 lives, has seen 30 Ukrainian soldiers killed since the start of the year, compared to 50 in all of 2020. dg/jbr/dl
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