Russian military deployment on the border with Ukraine is more massive than in 2014, when Russia invaded Crimea, a Pentagon spokesman said on Monday, calling the deployment "very worrying."

The head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell first mentioned the figure of 150,000 Russian soldiers on the Ukrainian border before his services corrected this estimate to bring it to 100,000.

The spokesperson for the US Department of Defense, John Kirby, refrained from giving a figure.

United States calls on Russia "to clarify its intentions"

"This is the most massive deployment since that of 2014, which resulted in the violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine," John Kirby said during a press briefing.

“I will not give a specific number,” he added.

"It's definitely more than the last one in 2014."

The United States considers this deployment as "very worrying" and they call on Russia "to clarify its intentions", continued the spokesman of the Pentagon.

“We do not believe that this deployment is conducive to security and stability along the border with Ukraine and certainly not in occupied Crimea.

"" The Russians claim that these are exercises.

It is not very clear to us that this is the objective, ”he added.

Moscow ensures "do not threaten anyone"

A Ukrainian soldier was killed and another wounded on Sunday in clashes with separatists in the east of his territory, where clashes have increased amid renewed tensions with Moscow.

Ukraine fears that the Kremlin, widely regarded as the military and political godfather of pro-Russian separatists in Donbass, eastern Ukraine, is looking for a pretext to attack it.

Moscow ensures "not to threaten anyone" while denouncing Ukrainian "provocations".

The war in Donbass has left more than 13,000 dead and nearly 1.5 million displaced since it began seven years ago in the wake of Moscow's annexation of the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula.

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