Nato demanded on Thursday that Moscow withdraw its troops from Ukraine as US President Barack Obama and his Western allies vowed to support Kiev and buttress their own defences against Russia in the biggest strategic shift since the Cold War. Nato leaders made clear at a summit in Wales that their military alliance would not use force to defend Ukraine, which is not a member, but planned tougher economic sanctions to try to change Russian behaviour in the former Soviet republic.
The two-day meeting was marked by the most serious east-west stand-off since the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago and the collapse of the Soviet bloc, as well as alarm at territorial gains by Islamist insurgents in Iraq and Syria. Western officials voiced deep caution about Kremlin talk of an imminent ceasefire in a five-month-old armed revolt by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, timed just as Nato was meeting and the European Union was preparing new sanctions.
Previous such statements had proved to be "smokescreens for continued destabilisation of Ukraine", Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters after the 28 leaders met Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. "We call on Russia to end its illegal and self-declared annexation of Crimea," Rasmussen declared. "We call on Russia to pull back its troops from Ukraine and stop the flow of arms, fighters and funds to the separatists. We call on Russia to step back from confrontation and take the path of peace."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the West was prepared to lend weight to those demands with further sanctions but also to talk to Moscow about a political solution. Poroshenko, whose forces have suffered a string of setbacks in the last week, told reporters he would order a ceasefire on Friday if an agreement on a peace plan to end the war in eastern Ukraine is signed at talks in the Belarus capital of Minsk.
"The only thing we need now for peace and stability is just two main things: first, that Russia withdraw their troops, and second, to close the border," the Ukrainian leader said, adding he was cautiously optimistic about Friday's peace talks. A Nato military officer said Moscow had "several thousand" combat troops and hundreds of tanks and armoured vehicles operating in Ukraine. The Kremlin denies it has any forces fighting alongside the rebels. The White House said Obama and leaders of Germany, France, Britain and Italy agreed on the sidelines of the summit that Russia should face "increased costs" for its actions.
French President Francois Hollande said tougher EU sanctions, due to be adopted on Friday, would depend on events in the coming hours. Diplomats said there was little chance of them being derailed, even if a ceasefire were signed. The Nato leaders also discussed how to tackle Islamic State militants who have captured swathes of Iraq and Syria, posing a new security threat on the alliance's south-eastern flank, and how to stabilise Afghanistan when Nato's combat mission there expires at the end of the year.