It is clear Russia has broken international law, UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace says.
Opening a meeting of the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force – made up of defence ministers from the Baltic states and Nordic countries – he notes President Putin’s recognition of two rebel-held regions in eastern Ukraine is “a very worrying sign”.
“And we’ve seen in open source reporting… Russian military equipment is moving into that region now,” he says, adding that this is awaiting verification.
“It’s incredibly serious what’s happening in Ukraine,” he says. “This is a sovereign state that has now had some of its land effectively annexed from it. This is a sovereign state that is a democratic state in Europe, all of us in Europe should worry.
“And we should not hesitate to take whatever action we need to to deter President Putin from undermining both Nato but also Europe, and more importantly, our values.”
Source: bbc
