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Stoltenberg told DPA that Russia has a chance to provide a peaceful Christmas for everyone. To do this, Russia must reduce tensions and withdraw its troops.
The West and Kiev are worried that Moscow could plan a new invasion of Ukraine, and the United States has warned Moscow that such a move would have serious economic consequences.
Russia has drawn about 100,000 troops from Ukraine’s borders.
“This is a significant concentration of military forces and there is no evidence that it will stop or slow down,” Stoltenberg said.
He did not specifically answer the question of whether Russia believes that by concentrating troops on Ukraine’s borders, it is trying to make concessions from NATO in terms of security guarantees.
Stoltenberg said that Russia’s intentions were not clear.
However, he noted that Russia had already used force against Ukraine, depriving it of Crimea.
With regard to the security guarantees requested by Russia, the NATO Secretary General expressed his readiness to discuss them. However, he denied that NATO could, for example, completely rule out Ukraine’s future accession to the alliance.
Russia’s foreign ministry officially revealed last Friday what “security guarantees” Moscow was demanding of the West and called on Washington to hasten talks on the issue.
Among other things, Russia has demanded a commitment from NATO not to pursue enlargement or to join Ukraine and other countries, and to refrain from any hostilities in Ukraine, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
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