NATO Reiterates Claims of ‘Alarming’ Russia Build-up Near Ukraine

NATO Chief: Russian Aid a Violation of International Commitments

Hardly a day goes by when some NATO official isn’t hyping a Russian military build-up along the Ukrainian border. Today, the honors go to Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who termed the build-up “alarming” in light of Russia’s dispatch of humanitarian aid into eastern Ukraine.

Russia sent humanitarian aid into eastern Ukraine today, complaining that Ukraine had kept them stuck in customs for too long. The Ukrainian government termed the shipments of food and medicine a “direct invasion.”

NATO seems to be backing that position, with Rasmussen insisting Russia’s shipment’s are a “blatant breach of Russia’s international commitments,” and Ukrainian sovereignty. He also claimed shipping aid was ‘escalating” the situation.

NATO has been backing the Ukrainian war against eastern rebels loudly from the beginning, and treating every Russian call for a ceasefire as “interference.” They have been building up military forces across Eastern Europe, nominally to defend them from a Russian invasion, though the invasion has been predicted by Rasmussen et al. for months, and never actually happened.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.