NATO chief warns Russia of Ukraine ‘costs’

Moscow denies that it’s planning any invasion and refuses to provide details about troop movements in its own territory

NATO SecretaryGeneral Jens Stoltenberg warned Russia on Friday that any attempt to invade Ukraine would have costs, as concern mounts about a Russian military buildup near its former Soviet neighbour’s borders.

Ukraine says Moscow kept about 90,000 troops near their common border following massive war games in western Russia earlier this year. The Ukrainian Defense

Ministry said units of the Russian 41st army remain near Yelnya, about 260 kilometres north of the border.

Moscow denies that it’s planning any invasion and refuses to provide details about troop movements on its own territory.

“If Russia uses force against Ukraine that will have costs, that would have consequences,” Stoltenberg said, ahead of a meeting of the 30-nation military organization’s foreign ministers in Latvia next week, where Russia’s activities will be high on the agenda. He did not say what those costs would be.

“This is the second time this year that Russia has amassed a large and unusual concentration of forces in the region,” Stoltenberg told reporters.

He said it includes tanks, artillery, armoured units, drones, and electronic warfare systems, as well as combat-ready troops.

Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 after the country’s Moscow-friendly president was driven from power by mass protests. Weeks later, Russia threw its weight behind a separatist insurgency that broke out in Ukraine’s east.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday alleged that his country’s intelligence service has uncovered plans for a Russiabacked coup d’etat in Ukraine next week, which the Russian government denied.