NATO Secretary General to Visit Ukraine

Petro Poroshenko, then-Ukrainian minister of foreign affairs, and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen at a December 2009 NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels. Rasmissen is scheduled to travel to Ukraine on Thursday to meet with Poroshenko, now Ukraine’s president, and other government officials. (NATO)

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen will visit Ukraine Thursday for meetings with Petro Poroshenko, the country’s president, amid high tensions with Russia, who the alliance says is continuing to mass troops near the Ukrainian border.

In addition to Poroshenko, Rasmussen is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister, Arseniy Yatseniuk, Foreign Affairs Minister Pavlo Klimkin, and Parliament Speaker Oleksandr Turchinov.

The visit comes as some 20,000 Russian combat troops are reported to have massed on border of Ukraine.

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Wednesday said a Russian invasion of Eastern Ukraine is a possibility.

“When you see the buildup of Russian troops and the sophistication of those troops, the training of those troops, the heavy military equipment that’s being put along that border, of course it’s a reality and it’s a threat, and it’s a possibility,” Hagel said during a briefing with reporters during a visit to US European Command in Stuttgart, Germany.

Marcus Weisgerber
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Marcus Weisgerber

Senior Pentagon Correspondent at Defense News
I write about broad-ranging policy, acquisition and budget issues affecting the US military.
Marcus Weisgerber
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