Nato’s secretary-general has called on Moscow to ease tensions with Ukraine and be transparent about its military activities as he warned of “unusual concentrations” of Russian troops near the country’s borders.
Nato has been monitoring a “significant” build-up of Russian military forces, Jens Stoltenberg said in a news conference, as he vowed to be “clear eyed” about the challenges in the area.
“We also know that Russia has demonstrated both the will and the capability to use military force against Ukraine before,” said Stoltenberg on Monday. “I think none of us should speculate too much. But the fact is that we see an unusual concentration of forces of military Russian capabilities.”
The US briefed allies last week about intelligence indicating that Moscow was preparing for a possible invasion of Ukraine. Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has dismissed the fears as “alarmist” and accused Nato of inflaming tensions in the region with its own unplanned exercises.
Kyiv estimates that Russia has deployed as many as 114,000 forces to the north, east, and south of Ukraine — including about 92,000 ground soldiers and the rest in air and sea military forces, Kyrylo Budanov, chief of Ukraine’s military intelligence, has told the FT.
Speaking at the same press conference, Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said the country needed to be ready for “all scenarios” and that it was premature to draw conclusions about Russia’s plans. He called for close co-ordination between Ukraine and its partners to take any measures necessary to “help deter Russia”.
German foreign minister Heiko Maas said Monday that Germany is making it clear to Russia on all diplomatic levels “that we are seeing [the troop build-up on Ukraine’s borders] and that this cannot be the start of a new escalation”.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke about it “very clearly” on a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Maas said.
Moscow accused the US and its allies of “negative bravado” over the situation in Ukraine. Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov told news agency Tass on Monday: “There are fewer and fewer grains of any kind of reason left. It’s full of provocative rhetoric against us and its content is also extremely provocative.”
Stoltenberg said Nato’s support to Ukraine was “not a threat to Russia” and said exercises by the alliance and its allies in the Black Sea region were “defensive and transparent”.
EU foreign ministers met in Brussels on Monday where they also discussed the situation on the eastern border of the EU.
The union has accused the regime of Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko of seeking to intentionally attract migrants to its borders as part of a plan to destabilise the EU in retaliation for its support for the political opposition of Belarus.
Asked if there was any connection between Russia’s activities near Ukraine and the situation in Belarus, which has been backed by Russia, Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, declined to draw any conclusions. “It’s clear Lukashenko is doing what he is doing because he has the strong support of Russia,” Borrell said.