RIA Novosti: NATO should encourage Ukraine to talk to rebels – Russian envoy

(RIA Novosti – Brussels, November 5, 2014) NATO should be encouraging Kiev to engage in dialogue with Donbass representatives in order to demonstrate commitment to stabilization in Ukraine, permanent representative of the Russian Federation at the alliance Aleksandr Grushko has told RIA Novosti.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday [4 November] that NATO members had recently “observed Russian troops’ approach to the border with Ukraine”, once again accusing Russia of supporting the militias in east Ukraine and yet providing no proof for his assertion. For his part, the NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, US General Philip Breedlove, spoke on Monday of an increase in the activity of the Russian Air Force. [Passage omitted: more on Breedlove’s statement]

“These statements are not backed up by any facts and, as a rule, appear just when an effort is required from the West to support the negotiating political process,” Grushko said.

“Had NATO really been committed to stabilization in Ukraine, it would have been more active in encouraging the authorities in Kiev to establish sustained dialogue with Donbass representatives, whose mandate has been confirmed by election results, along the lines of the Minsk accords,” he said.

[“The impression is that another attempt has been made this time to absolve the Ukrainian authorities of responsibility for failing to implement the Minsk and other accords, to shift the blame for the stalling of the peace process to Moscow, and simultaneously justify further build-up of the alliance’s military presence in CEE (Central and Eastern Europe)”, a later RIA Novosti report quoted Grushko saying.]