Lithuania says it, Poland urge Russia to withdraw troops from Ukraine border

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said he and his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda called on Friday on Russia to immediately withdraw its forces from its border with Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier pressed for peace talks including Russian President Vladimir Putin to ease tensions following the troop build-up. "We call on Russia to immediately withdraw its forces ...

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said he and his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda called on Friday on Russia to immediately withdraw its forces from its border with Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier pressed for peace talks including Russian President Vladimir Putin to ease tensions following the troop build-up.

"We call on Russia to immediately withdraw its forces ... and to cooperate with Ukraine on the basis of international law and mutual respect," Nauseda said in a statement after talks with Duda. Lithuania also summoned Russia's ambassador to protest what it called Russian "foreign policy and human rights violations", including "deep concern" with the military build-up.

Kyiv and Moscow have traded blame for an escalation of fighting in the eastern Donbass region, where Ukrainian troops have battled Russian-backed forces in a conflict that Kyiv says has killed 14,000 people since 2014. (Reporting By Andrius Sytas; editing by John Stonestreet)