NATO fears Russian aid to Ukraine may disguise invasion
TENSIONS between Russia and the West threatened to flare up again yesterday as President Putin vowed to press on with plans to send an aid convoy into eastern Ukraine.
It comes as the Russian leader, blamed for arming rebels and stoking conflict in the ex-soviet state, has amassed 45,000 troops on the border with its troubled neighbour.
“There is a high probability” of more direct Russian military action in Ukraine, NATO’s secretary general said in an interview yesterday.
“We see the Russians developing the narrative and the pretext for such an operation under the guise of a humanitarian operation, and we see a military build-up that could be used to conduct such illegal military operations in Ukraine,” Anders Fogh Rasmussen told Reuters.
Russian troops entered the Crimea region of Ukraine and annexed it in March, arguing Moscow needed to protect Russian speakers. The region is now administered as a part of the Russian Federation.
The Kremlin announced the plans to send in aid in an International Red Cross convoy.
However, the humanitarian organisation needs the agreement of both sides before it will undertake any operation.