NATO Chief to Russia: ‘Step Back from the Brink’

NATO Secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen has cautioned Russia against an invasion of Ukraine and called an immediate withdrawal of troops it amassed at the country’s frontier.

“Step back from the brink, step back from the border and [do] not use peacekeeping as an excuse for war-making,” said Rasmussen during a visit to Kyiv Thursday referring to reports that Moscow may send in troops into eastern Ukraine as “peacekeeping forces.”

Speaking before reporters in Ukraine’s capital, he said that Russia, instead of de-escalating the conflict, continues to destabilize Ukraine, and that its support for pro-Russian separatists fighting government forces in the east was growing “in scale and sophistication.”

Rasmussen reportedly also announced an end to NATO’s cooperation with Russia.

NATO support for Kyiv

The NATO chief spoke after discussing with Ukrainian officials, including President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, possible support the Western alliance could offer to bolster Kyiv’s defense capabilities.

Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko (L) speaks with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen during their meeting in Kyiv, August 7, 2014.Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko (L) speaks with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen during their meeting in Kyiv, August 7, 2014.Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko (L) speaks with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen during their meeting in Kyiv, August 7, 2014.Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko (L) speaks with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen during their meeting in Kyiv, August 7, 2014.

In particular, Rasmussen discussed the creation of a NATO trust fund to help boost Kyiv’s defenses in such areas as command and control, communications and cyber defense, Ukraine’s government said in a statement after a meeting between the NATO chief and Ukrainian officials.

The provision of lethal aid by the alliance to Ukrainian armed forces battling pro-Moscow separatists in the country’s east does not appear to have been discussed.

Rasmussen arrived in Kyiv as NATO said Russia had again increased troop levels on its borders with Ukraine to 20,000 and as both the alliance and the United States expressed concern over a possible ground invasion of eastern Ukraine by Moscow in support of pro-Russia rebels. Some sources have suggested that Moscow could send in troops under the guise of “peacekeepers.”

Aeroflot plane instead of MH17?

The head of Ukraine’s Security Service says pro-Moscow rebels had planned to shoot down a Russian Aeroflot passenger plane the day of the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 to create a pretext for a Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine.

The separatists’ intention was to down Aeroflot flight AFL-2074 which was en route from Moscow to Larnaca, Cyprus, at approximately the same time and in the same air space as flight MH17, which passed over eastern Ukraine June 17, Interfax-Ukraine quoted Valentyn Nalyvaichenko as saying.

Nalyvaichenko said his agency reached the conclusion during the course of its own investigation into the downing of MH17.

He said that the Russian-provided Buk anti-air missile battery which was used to down MH17 had been transferred to Ukraine for that purpose, and that the Aeroflot plane with Russian passengers on board was supposed to have been shot down over territory controlled by Ukrainian government troops.

“This terrorist act, cynically, was planned as a pretext for the launch of an all-out aggression [into Ukraine] in response to the mass killing of innocent Russians,” Nalyvaichenko said.

There has been no immediate reaction from Moscow to the claim.

Some information provided by RFE/RL and Reuters.