German Chancellor Angela Merkel had a telephone conversation with U.S. President Joe Biden in which they discussed the situation in Ukraine.

The sides believe that "Russia should be urged to roll back the recent military build-up [in the west of the country] in order to achieve de-escalation of the situation.

Another topic of discussion was the withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan: the North Atlantic Alliance announced the start of this process in the evening of April 14.

On April 8, Merkel had a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the "strengthening of Russia's military presence" on the Ukrainian border and urged Russia to reduce its military presence in the region in order to de-escalate the situation.
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