Nato On Crimea Annexation

NATO and Russia begin their highest level talks for nearly two years today, in a bid to ease military tensions over the Baltic Sea and the simmering violence still gripping eastern Ukraine.

If Russia tries to infiltrate troops into a NATO country, even out of official military uniform as it did before it annexed Ukraine's Crimea, NATO will respond militarily, the alliance's top commander said in an interview published on Sunday.

NATO suspended all practical cooperation with Russia on Tuesday in protest at its annexation of Crimea, and ordered military planners to draft measures to strengthen its defences and reassure nervous Eastern European countries.

US President Barack Obama arrived in the Netherlands on Monday to discuss with six other world leaders how to punish Russia for annexing Ukraine's Crimea region, including possibly excluding Moscow from the G8 club of rich nations.

Ukraine's government appealed for Western help on Tuesday to stop Moscow annexing Crimea but the Black Sea peninsula, overrun by Russian troops, seemed fixed on a course that could formalise rule from Moscow within days.

NATO and Russia begin their highest level talks for nearly two years today, in a bid to ease military tensions over the Baltic Sea and the simmering violence still gripping eastern Ukraine.

If Russia tries to infiltrate troops into a NATO country, even out of official military uniform as it did before it annexed Ukraine's Crimea, NATO will respond militarily, the alliance's top commander said in an interview published on Sunday.

NATO suspended all practical cooperation with Russia on Tuesday in protest at its annexation of Crimea, and ordered military planners to draft measures to strengthen its defences and reassure nervous Eastern European countries.

US President Barack Obama arrived in the Netherlands on Monday to discuss with six other world leaders how to punish Russia for annexing Ukraine's Crimea region, including possibly excluding Moscow from the G8 club of rich nations.

Ukraine's government appealed for Western help on Tuesday to stop Moscow annexing Crimea but the Black Sea peninsula, overrun by Russian troops, seemed fixed on a course that could formalise rule from Moscow within days.