BERLIN, May 6 -- In an interview with European newspapers published Tuesday, The German Foreign Minister warned that Ukraine was close to a military confrontation and more efforts needed to be made to prevent a new Cold War.

"The bloody pictures from Odessa have shown us that we are just a few steps away from a military confrontation," Frank-Walter Steinmeier told Spain's El Pais, France's Le Monde, Italy's La Repubblica and Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza, according to reports.

"The Ukraine conflict has increased in speed and intensity, in a way we would not have thought possible some time ago," he said.

The minister urged more efforts to prevent a new Cold War and called for a second Geneva conference to defuse the escalating crisis in Ukraine before the upcoming presidential election on May 25.

The German foreign ministry has warned against traveling to eastern and southern parts of Ukraine, advising German citizens to leave those parts of the country where tensions are mounting.