NATO demands Russia halt “illegal military actions” in Ukraine

NATO demanded Friday that Russia immediately halt its “illegal military actions” in eastern Ukraine and its support for mainly ethnicRussian militias battling Kiev’s forces in that region.

It also called on Moscow to take “immediate and verifiable” steps to deescalate the crisis.

“We condemn in the strongest terms Russia’s continued disregard of its international obligations,” NATO SecretaryGeneral Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a statement to the media after an extraordinary meeting of the NATOUkraine commission, which was held at Kiev’s request.

“Despite Moscow’s hollow denials, it is now clear that Russian troops and equipment have illegally crossed the border into eastern and southeastern Ukraine. This is not an isolated action, but part of a dangerous pattern over many months to destabilize Ukraine as a sovereign nation,” the Danish former prime minister said.

The statement released after the meeting of ambassadors from the 28 NATO countries and Ukraine said “Russian forces are engaged in direct military operations inside Ukraine” and that Moscow “continues to supply the separatists with tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and rocket launchers.”

NATO has released what it says are satellite images supporting the accusations.

Russia “has fired on Ukraine from both Russian territory and within Ukraine itself” and maintains “thousands of combatready troops close to Ukraine’s borders,” Rasmussen said, describing the combined effect of those actions as a “blatant violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Rasmussen also said NATO will take steps to enhance cooperation with Ukraine at a summit on Sept. 45 in Wales to be attended by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

Those measures will include creating four trust funds for concrete initiatives in four areas: military logistics; command and control; cyber defense; and assistance to military personnel, including the wounded, the NATO secretarygeneral said.

The purpose of those funds is to finance activities that can help Ukraine in “reforming and modernizing” its armed forces so they can defend their country, he added.

In a tense emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, Kiev’s representative, Oleksandr Pavlichenko, accused Russia of launching a “direct military invasion” of Ukraine.

The U.S. and Russian ambassadors also engaged in a war of words at the gathering.

“Russia has to stop lying and has to stop fueling this conflict,” U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said during Thursday’s session.

“The mask is coming off. We see Russia’s actions for what they are: a deliberate effort to support and now fight alongside illegal separatists in another sovereign country,” she said, referring to the satellite imagery taken on Tuesday.

Russia’s U.N. representative, Vitaly Churkin, criticized both Kiev and Washington.

“The Kiev authorities have torpedoed all political agreements on resolving the crisis. The only thing we’re seeing is a fight against dissent,” the Russian diplomat said.

Kiev refers to the eastern militias as terrorists and Western governments usually call them separatists, though their original demands were for a federal system that would give Ukraine’s regions greater autonomy.

Churkin acknowledged the presence of Russian volunteers in eastern Ukraine.

“There are Russian volunteers in eastern parts of Ukraine. No one is hiding that,” he said, before asking Power to explain the presence of what he said were dozens of U.S. intelligence personnel in Kiev.

The veteran diplomat said he wanted to “send a message to Washington: Stop interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign states.”