Over 1,000 Russian troops' in Ukraine----NATO

By -
A senior North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO official said on Thursday that "well over a thousand" Russian troops were operating inside Ukraine and warned that the West faced a "very aggressive" Russia, according to AFP.
Russian fighters "support separatists, fighting with them and fighting amongst them," said NATO's Brigadier-General Nico Tak, adding that the supply of arms by Russia had increased in both "volume and quality".
Tak, who was speaking to reporters ahead of a NATO summit next week in Britain, said the situation was made even more worrying because the key route between Donetsk and Novoazovsk, on the Sea of Azov close to the Russian border, had been cut off by pro-Kremlin forces.
"The supply line is cut" for the Ukrainian army, he said.
The general warned that the latest events in Ukraine "have made clear that the security paradigm in Europe has fundamentally changed" in the face of a "very aggressive Russia".
He said the past weeks have seen a "real upsurge in Russia's activity" in the flashpoint region, including the supply of weapons, ammunition, special forces training, intelligence and logistical support.
"All this has been systematically denied, adding confusion," Tak said.
To back up the claims, NATO released satellite images captured in late August it said depicted Russian artillery units moving through the Ukrainian countryside and then mobilising into firing positions.
The images "provide additional evidence that Russian combat soldiers, equipped with sophisticated heavy weaponry, are operating inside Ukraine's sovereign territory," Tak said.
Also released were images NATO said showed substantial activity in areas near the border with Ukraine.
NATO said this activity "is being conducted in direct support to forces operating inside Ukraine, and is part of a highly coordinated and destabilising strategy".
The reports by NATO come a week before an alliance summit in Cardiff, where possible action against Russia over the crisis in Ukraine will top the agenda.
Ukraine's ambassador to the European Union on Thursday called for "large scale" military assistance from the West as reports emerged that Russian troops had helped open a new front in southeastern Ukraine.
EU leaders will discuss the developments at a summit on Saturday that is primarily tasked with filling top EU jobs.
Immediately preceding the summit, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko will meet European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso in Brussels, as well as EU President Herman Van Rompuy. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

UBTH @50: Obaseki hails institution’s role in strengthening Edo healthcare

By -
Image
(Nigeria) Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, has commended the staff and management of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, UBTH, for their unwavering commitment, dedication, and hard work in providing high-quality healthcare services to the people of Edo State and Nigeria in the past fifty years. Obaseki, at a dinner organized in honour of the Committee of Chief Medical Directors of Nigeria, at the Government House, Benin City, reassured the government’s continuous partnership and collaboration with the federal government-owned health institution to strengthen the health system and ensure quality health delivery to Edo people. The governor, who was represented by his deputy, Philip Shaibu, reeled out the gains of the government’s reforms in the health sector, commending the medical centre for bolstering the government’s efforts at transforming Edo State into a health hub. He said, "We came into a wilderness where you have to cut a part for yourself and fix it. We held
Read more

NBC has no powers to impose fine on broadcast stations --Court

By -
Image
(Nigeria) The National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, has been restrained by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, from imposing fines on broadcast stations in the country. Trial judge in the matter, Justice James Omotosho also set aside the N500,000 fines imposed on March 1, 2019, on each of 45 broadcast stations. The court made the orders in its judgment a suit by the Incorporated Trustees of Media Rights Agenda, MRA, which had sued the NBC. Justice Omotosho held that the NBC, not being a court of law, had no power to impose sanctions as punishment on broadcast stations. The court further held that the Nigeria Broadcasting Code, which gives the commission the power to impose sanction, is in conflict with Section 6 of the Constitution that vested judicial power in the court of law. He said the court would not sit idle and watch a body imposing fine arbitrarily without recourse to the law. He said that the commission did not comply with the law when it sat as a complainant and at
Read more