| CNN | - |
Brussels,
Belgium (CNN) -- NATO's military chief warned Wednesday that Russian
troops could begin moving on Ukraine within 12 hours of being given an
order, amid fears that Moscow could seek to invade its eastern region.
Ukraine crisis: NATO military chief warns Russian troops could invade swiftly
updated 2:10 PM EDT, Wed April 2, 2014
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NATO military chief Breedlove: Russian forces could move into Ukraine very swiftly
- Russia is trying to reestablish Soviet sphere of influence, NATO secretary general says
- Energy supplies must not be used as a political weapon, says Secretary of State John Kerry
- "No nation should use energy to stymie a people's aspirations," Kerry says
Gen. Philip Breedlove, NATO's supreme allied commander Europe, also told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that with 40,000 troops massed near the border, Russia has all the components necessary to move on Ukraine.
These forces are
"supported by fixed-wing aircraft, rotary aircraft, all of the logistics
required in order to successfully make an incursion if they needed," he
said.
In terms of deterrence,
Breedlove said NATO has a good air and sea plan and is working in the
next several days on developing a land component to that reassurance.
NATO: Forces will stay in Afghanistan
NATO: Land deterrence needed against Russia
Kerry: Energy can't be used as a weapon
Ukraine is not a NATO
member, but many countries that are members -- such Poland and the
Baltic states -- have voiced their increasing anxiety about Russia's
recent actions.
NATO said on Tuesday that
it would suspend "all practical civilian and military cooperation" with
Russia in response to its annexation of Ukraine's southern Crimea
region, which has triggered the worst East-West crisis since the Cold
War.
It also said it had seen
no sign that Moscow is withdrawing some of its troops from the eastern
Ukrainian border, as Russia has claimed.
NATO chief Anders Fogh
Rasmussen, speaking in Brussels at the end of a two-day meeting of
foreign ministers from the 28-member NATO bloc, said he shared
Breedlove's concerns. He accused Russia of trying to intimidate Ukraine
as part of an attempt to "reestablish a Russian sphere of influence
covering the former Soviet space."
Rasmussen again said
Russia had a "massive military buildup along Ukraine's borders," with
troops in a high state of readiness, and that NATO had not seen signs of
any significant reduction in that buildup.
"This is really a matter
of grave concern. If Russia were to intervene further in Ukraine, I
wouldn't hesitate to call it a historic mistake," he said.
"That would lead to
further ... international isolation of Russia. It would have
far-reaching consequences for relations between Russia and what we as a
whole might call the Western world. It would be a miscalculation with
huge strategic implications."
Urging Moscow to pull
back its troops from the border, Rasmussen stressed that NATO wants to
find a political and diplomatic solution to the crisis in Ukraine.
In an earlier media
interview Wednesday, Breedlove said that Russia could "roll across the
country in three to five days if it wanted to," a NATO military official
said.
Russia dismisses 'Cold War' sparring
As the diplomatic
back-and-forth continued Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey
Lavrov spoke with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry by phone.
NATO stands firm with Ukraine
Russian troops stay, NATO amps security
The Russian Foreign
Ministry said Lavrov stressed the need for joint efforts to launch
"internal dialogue in Ukraine" to reach national unity and raised
concern about the decisions reached by NATO, "which don't help the
implementation of these tasks."
A senior State
Department official said Kerry "conveyed the strong support he was
hearing for the people of Ukraine and the legitimate government of
Ukraine" from counterparts at the NATO meeting. He also reiterated the
objective of de-escalating the crisis and called for Russian-Ukrainian
government talks.
A statement posted by
Russia's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, quoting spokesman Aleksandr
Lukashevich, dismissed NATO's words as rhetoric that harks back to the
Cold War.
"The wording of the
statement rather reminds us of verbal sparring of the Cold War times,
while the decision itself brings us six years back, when Brussels
'froze' the work of the Russia-NATO Council," it said. "It is well known
how this 'freeze' ended up. NATO initiated a return to cooperation with
Russia, stating an 'all-weather nature' of cooperation within the
framework of the Russia-NATO Council."
The NATO ministers said
on Tuesday that political dialogue in the NATO-Russia Council could
continue, "as necessary, at the ambassadorial level and above, to allow
us to exchange views, first and foremost on this crisis."
They said they would review NATO's relations with Russia at their next meeting in June.
Marine deployment
Within the next few
days, 175 U.S. Marines from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina will begin
deploying to Romania as part of an effort to beef up a Marine Corps
presence in Europe for dealing with contingencies. The deployment to
Romania was long planned, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said.
The Marines will become
additional forces assigned to a so-called Special Purpose Marine Air
Ground Task Force headquartered in Moron, Spain. But additional forces
in Romania will beef up the U.S. military presence in the region as
tensions have risen over the Russian troop buildup along Ukraine's
border.
Romania has agreed to
allow up to 600 U.S. forces on its soil at any one time. There are an
additional 300 Marines in Romania as part of a longstanding bilateral
training program.
The Pentagon is also
considering additional moves in Eastern Europe to beef up military
deployment exercises. A Navy warship is expected to enter the Black Sea
in the coming days for another round of port visits and exercises as
part of the effort, Warren said.
Kerry: Don't use energy as a weapon
Earlier Wednesday, Kerry
said energy supplies must not be used as a political weapon, speaking
at an EU-U.S. energy summit held in Brussels alongside the NATO talks.
His remarks came after
Russian energy giant Gazprom announced a hefty increase in the price of
natural gas it supplies to Ukraine.
Kerry, who spoke while
flanked by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said the European
Union and United States were taking "important steps" to make it harder
for one state to hold another hostage to energy supplies.
"No nation should use
energy to stymie a people's aspirations," said Kerry, co-chairman of the
EU-U.S. Energy Council. "We cannot allow it to be used as a political
weapon or an instrument of aggression."
Europe and the United
States are working together to reduce Ukraine's reliance on Russian
energy by developing alternative sources of natural gas, Kerry said.
"We're working in
lockstep to help Ukraine bring natural gas in from Poland and Hungary
and develop a route through Slovakia," he said, adding that the United
States also hopes to export more natural gas in the future.
At the same time, Kerry
said Ukraine has committed to work to reduce consumer subsidies to make
its energy market more efficient.
The International
Monetary Fund last week agreed to lend Ukraine up to $18 billion over
the next two years in return for a package of reforms, including to its
energy market.
In the United States,
the House of Representatives gave final congressional approval Tuesday
to legislation that would provide $1 billion in loan guarantees to
Ukraine and would impose sanctions on Russia for its actions in Ukraine.
President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill.
"Developments in Ukraine
have brought energy security concerns to the fore and prove the need to
reinforce energy security in Europe," said a joint statement issued by
the EU-U.S. Energy Council.
Kerry also spoke again
Wednesday with his NATO counterparts, including Frank-Walter Steinmeier
of Germany, Norway's Borge Brende, Poland's Radoslaw Sikorski and
British Foreign Secretary William Hague.
Gas price hike
After the increase in
gas prices reported by Russian state media Tuesday, Ukraine will pay
$385.50 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas, up from the previous rate of
$268.50.
The move, which is now
in effect, ends a discount that was agreed to before Ukraine's
pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted after months of street
protests.
Ukraine also owes $1.7
billion in unpaid natural gas bills, Gazprom chief executive Alexei
Miller was quoted as saying by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency.
In a move that may add
to Ukraine's financial woes, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a
bill Wednesday terminating Russian agreements with Ukraine over the
lease of its Black Sea naval base in Crimea, RIA Novosti reported.
Russia paid the
Ukrainian government $530 million annually for use of the Sevastopol
base, and it wrote off nearly $100 million of Kiev's debt for the right
to use Ukrainian waters, according to the news agency. This deal will
now come to an end.
Also terminated was an
agreement under which Russia gave Ukraine a $100 discount on natural
gas, RIA Novosti said. This means that the price Ukraine pays is
expected to rise to $485.50 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas once the
Russian government issues an official resolution, it said.
Far-right leader's death investigated
Separately, Ukraine's
Interior Ministry released a statement about the death last month of
prominent far-right activist Oleksandr Muzychko, better known as Sashko
Biliy.
The ministry has said
that Muzychko, a leader of Right Sector, a far-right group prominent in
the recent anti-government protests, had been killed in a shootout with
police in the town of Rivne. Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandr Doniy, whose
constituency is in Rivne, gave a different version of events, saying the
activist was dragged into a car and then shot.
On Wednesday, the
ministry said special forces had "acted in accordance with the law and
all their actions are concluded legitimate" during his arrest. It said
Muzychko was killed when he fired at himself.
Journalist Susannah Palk reported from
Brussels and CNN's Laura Smith-Spark wrote and reported in London. CNN's
Alla Eshchenko, Barbara Starr, Mick Krever, Jason Hanna and Jonathan
Helman contributed to this report.
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