Nato ‘stands with Ukraine’ and warns Russia over military build-up at border

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has expressed the Western military alliance’s “unwavering” support for Ukraine and warned Moscow not to push its troop build-up along Russia’s border with the neighbouring country.

“Nato stands with Ukraine,” Mr Stoltenberg said during a news conference with Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, calling the Russian movements “unjustified, unexplained and deeply concerning”.

The comments came amid a rise in ceasefire violations in eastern Ukraine, where Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces have been locked in a conflict since Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

More than 14,000 people have died in fighting in eastern Ukraine since 2014, and efforts to negotiate a political settlement have stalled.

Mr Stoltenberg called Moscow’s recent troop deployment the biggest military build-up since the conflict in eastern Ukraine began.

“Russia has moved thousands of combat troops to Ukraine’s borders, the largest massing of Russian troops since the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. Over the last days, several Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in eastern Ukraine,” he said.

The Ukrainian foreign minister sounded defiant towards Moscow, and said Ukraine and its Western partners were better prepared than seven years ago.

“Should Moscow take any reckless move or start a new spiral of violence, it will be costly in all senses,” Mr Kuleba said.

A special Nato meeting yesterday on Ukraine would make sure the alliance is not caught unawares, he said.

“By gathering today, we try to avoid the mistake that was made in 2014 when Russia was ready to act swiftly and pursue its military goals,” Mr Kuleba said.

Ukraine said Russia has accumulated 41,000 troops at its border with eastern Ukraine and 42,000 more in Crimea.

The numbers are likely to grow as the troops keep arriving.

The Kremlin has maintained that Russia is free to deploy its troops wherever it wants on its territory and has repeatedly accused the Ukrainian military of “provocative actions” and of planning to retake control of the rebel regions by force.