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Macron calls for ‘halt’ to shelling in east Ukraine

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday called for an end to shelling on the frontline in eastern Ukraine as fears mount that Russia could be seeking a pretext to invade.

“The situation in Donbas over recent hours is very worrying. There have already been a number of victims apparently,” Macron said after an EU-Africa summit in Brussels.

“The bombardments in the contact zone have resumed. Firstly, we call for a halt to these military acts and a rapid de-escalation, and secondly for the resumption of constructive negotiations.”

The uptick in violence along the frontline between Ukrainian forces and Moscow-backed separatists comes after Washington accused Russia of seeking to provoke an incident to falsely justify an incursion.

Macron — who met President Vladimir Putin this month — said that “Russian military pressure is not weakening” on Ukraine despite Moscow’s announcements it is pulling back troops from the border.

The French leader insisted he wanted to see “concrete” steps from Putin to prove that he is willing to de-escalate the crisis.

Russia has denied it has any intention to invade and claims to have begun withdrawing some of the 149,000 troops that Ukraine says are on its borders.

The EU and its allies in the West have threatened massive sanctions on Moscow if it stages a further incursion into Ukraine eight years after the Kremlin seized the Crimean peninsula.