NATO urges Russia to pull out of Ukraine during talks held in Brussels

Europe, News May 19, 2015 , by IRIA No Comments

NATO has urged Russia to cease support for separatists in Ukraine and cease short-notice military exercises

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had been urged during a visit to Brussels on Tuesday to convey to Russia’s military the need to “avoid incidents spiraling out of control.”

Mr. Stoltenberg says he has told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that Moscow must end its support for the separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Stoltenberg spoke in Brussels on May 19 after holding talks with Lavrov on the sidelines of the annual session of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers.

Speaking later to journalists, Stoltenberg said he called on the Russians to withdraw their forces from Ukraine and to stop backing the armed insurgency in that country’s east.

Stoltenberg said he also pushed the case for “more transparency and predictability” in future Russian military activities. He said NATO is concerned about the large number of military exercises conducted by the Russians on short notice. He said it was important to make sure that incidents did not occur which could “spiral out of control.”

“We also discussed the need for transparency, especially when we have an increased military presence along our borders,” he said. “For NATO it is important to do whatever we can to avoid that incidents are spiraling out of control.”

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and Russia’s foreign minister met Tuesday for the first time in three months, and Stoltenberg said he restated the “very strong NATO position” against Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and its support for rebels in eastern Ukraine.

Relations between NATO and Moscow have dropped to their lowest point since the Cold War after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in March 2014.

The alliance also accuses Russia of backing separatists in Ukraine’s east with troops and weapons, which Moscow denies.