NATO to React "Immediately" on Ukrainian Crisis

World | April 16, 2014, Wednesday // 15:33
Bulgaria: NATO to React "Immediately" on Ukrainian Crisis NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Photo by EPA/BGNES

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has announced plans to "immediately" bolster collective defense at the alliance's eastern flank.

Forces "at sea, in the air, on land" are to be rapidly deployed in response to the continued Ukrainian-Russian  standoff, The Guardian quoted him as saying.

"More aircraft, ships and forces on the ground" will be dispatched to the eastern borders, including the Baltic and eastern Mediterranean.

At a news conference following a meeting of NATO ambassadors in Brussels, Rasmussen explained the alliance was taking the measures to improve "preparedness, training and exercises".

The move follows news that Ukrainian armored vehicles were seized by pro-Russian militia in the town of Kramatorsk.

About 100 men, heavily armed according to reports, rode on top of Ukrainian armored vehicles past Kramatorsk's railway station, heading to Slaviansk, where witnesses report a Russian flag had been hoisted at the city entrance.

Reports by Spanish newspaper El Mundo suggest that Ukrainian troops inside the vehicles willfully allowed rebels to enter.

Slaviansk has been virtually sealed off for days by pro-Russian rebels, even though earlier reports suggested Ukraine's troops had managed to make their way into the city as part of the anti-terrorist operation launched by Kiev Tuesday.

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Tags: NATO, Rasmussen, Slaviansk, Kramatorsk, Russia, Ukraine

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