NATO says Russian forces ‘still inside Ukraine’
VILNIUS, Sept 20, 2014 (AFP) – NATO’s top military commander on Saturday said Russian forces were still operating in Ukraine and that a ceasefire was not working, but he expressed hope a new peace plan could bring progress.
“As to Russian forces on the ground, yes, they are
still inside Ukraine,” US General Philip Breedlove told reporters in
Lithuania, without providing precise numbers.
He said a two-week-old ceasefire was “still there in
name, but what is happening on the ground is quite a different story. We hope
that this will change.”
“The fluidity of movement of Russian forces and
Russian-backed forces back and forth across that border makes it almost
impossible to understand the numbers,” he said in Lithuania’s capital
Vilnius, where NATO military chiefs met this weekend to focus on the alliance’s
eastern flank and ties with Russia.
Breedlove said the number of Russian troops inside Ukraine
had “come down significantly” from what he termed the
“height” of Russian movement into Ukraine “over a week
ago”.
But he insisted “they haven’t returned home and are
still available to bring their military force to bear on Ukraine should it be desired.”
“And then of course we have seen Russian forces
reposition inside the country to bring great pressure on Mariupol in the south.
“So the short answer is yes, there are still Russians
inside of Ukraine enabling the Russian-backed forces there.”
But he was hopeful about a nine-point peace plan agreed in
marathon overnight talks in the Belarussian capital Minsk, which calls on
Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian militias to pull back their troops from a
demilitarised zone in eastern Ukraine.
“We heard today of some possible new agreements… and
it is our sincere hope and desire that… the two combatants can come to
agreement to again get to a ceasefire situation,” he said.
Under the freshly agreed Minsk pact, forces from both sides
are required to retreat 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) from current frontlines
within 24 hours of the signing of the accord and allow monitors from the OSCE
pan-European security organisation into the area to make sure the truce holds.
Territory under rebel control would be left open to their
administration under a temporary self-rule plan adopted by lawmakers in Kyiv on
Tuesday.
The pact — also signed by Moscow’s ambassador to Kyiv and
the self-proclaimed “prime ministers” of the rebel-run regions of
Donetsk and Lugansk — aims to shore up a ceasefire deal signed on September 5.
– Afghan deal –
Breedlove also said NATO was eyeing the rapid conclusion of
security agreements with Afghanistan for its post-2014 mission in the country
once a unity government is formed there.
“We are hoping for very fast signatures,” he said,
adding that the rival candidates both endorsed crucial security pacts that will
allow NATO troops to stay in Afghanistan after the end of this year.
The result of Afghanistan’s disputed election is due to be
declared on Sunday.
The stalemate between presidential candidates Ashraf Ghani
and Abdullah Abdullah since the June 14 vote has plunged Afghanistan into a
political crisis as US-led NATO troops end their 13-year war against the
Taliban.
NATO’s combat mission will end in December, with a follow-on
force of about 12,000 troops likely to stay into 2015 on training and support
duties.
The talks in Lithuania focusing on defending NATO’s eastern
flank and relations with Russia come just two weeks after the alliance
announced a new rapid reaction force at a key summit in Wales.
Lithuania said the new measures will also include regional
“command and control” centres in the Baltic states and Poland.
These countries, formerly behind the Iron Curtain, are
concerned about Russia’s territorial ambitions in view of the Crimea annexation
and the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
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