Ukraine, Stoltenberg: “Russia prepares wider attack”

On the Ukraine-Russia crisis “we see continuous preparations” by Russian forces “for an attack” on the country “on a larger scale. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said this at a press point in Brussels after Russia’s decision to recognize the Donbass separatist republics. “We condemn the incursion” of the Russian forces, he adds, which have gone from “covert attempts to open military action”. Read also This is a “serious escalation” and a “flagrant violation of international law”, which “undermines the territorial integrity” of Ukraine and which has “serious consequences for European security”. The crisis was caused “only by Russia” and “we commend Ukraine for not having responded to the provocations”, he stresses. NATO, he continues, “welcomes the decision taken by the German government not to certify Nord Stream 2”, the trans-Baltic gas pipeline, already completed, which was supposed to connect Germany directly to Russia.