Russian military drills near Ukraine amount to escalation - Germany

AMMAN (Reuters) - Russia's troop build-up and military exercises on the border with Ukraine amount to an escalation, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Friday.

"On the military side we are not seeing any signs of de-escalation but rather the opposite. The Russian military build-up continues and in Belarus some 30,000 soldiers carried out military exercises, partly very close to the Ukrainian border," Baerbock said during a news conference in Amman, Jordan.

"This is why are preparing intensively for all scenarios, of course with close coordinations with our allies and with our partners in the European Union," Baerbock added. "There is a red line and this is the sovereignty of Ukraine. We are preparing with all measures and with rigour but we are also simultaneously working for dialogue."

She said Russia's naval exercises in the Black and Azov Seas also amounted to an escalation.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Writing by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Kevin Liffey)