North Atlantic Treaty Organisation chief demands Russian Federation withdraw …
Stoltenberg started a two-day visit on September 21, his first trip to Ukraine as North Atlantic Treaty Organisation chief, in a show of support for Kyiv’s pro-Western government.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will meet Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in the country’s Lviv region on Monday to launch a joint disaster management exercise of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Ukrainian emergency personnel, Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform reports.
He will also hold talks with Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and the parliamentary speaker, and will attend a meeting of Ukraine´s National Security and Defence Council, it said. The drill, being held near Lviv in western Ukraine, is meant to test authorities’ capacity to respond to a mine explosion and collapse and the resulting earth tremors.
Ukraine had dropped its bid to join North Atlantic Treaty Organisation in 2010 to answer Russian concerns, but now says membership is the only way to protect its territory.
“One soldier was killed and another injured” in the Lugansk region, but the new truce, which came into force on September 1, “is being respected”, said Ukrainian spokesman for military issues Andriy Lysenko.
“We consider the door (to NATO) is open”, Poroshenko told a news conference, although he said Ukraine was not ready to join.
Kyiv and the West insist that Moscow has sent troops and arms to fuel a separatist conflict that has claimed nearly 8,000 lives in east Ukraine since April 2014, allegations Moscow vehemently denies.
“Russia continues to support the separatists, provide them with weapons, with different kinds of equipment, training, forces“.