BRUSSELS
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has accused Russia of continuing to arm and train separatist forces in eastern Ukraine.
His comments on Wednesday at the NATO headquarter in Brussels came a day after NATO warships began exercises in the Black Sea.
Speaking alongside NATO top commander U.S. General Philip Breedlove, Stoltenberg said: "We ... still see Russian presence and strong support for the separatists in eastern Ukraine. We see the delivery of equipment, forces, (and) training."
He said NATO's priority in Ukraine would be to make sure monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) would be given safe access to the information they needed to observe the cease-fire in Ukraine.
Stoltenberg said: "Our main message today is that the OSCE needs access.
"What we ask for is both freedom of movement ... but also that they get access to necessary information ... The monitoring of ceasefire is by no means sufficient today."
Russia 'a target'
Stoltenberg’s comments came as NATO warships continued exercises in the international waters off the coast of Bulgaria in moves which are likely to antagonize soured relations with Russia.
RT news cited on Tuesday Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov as saying NATO was using the Ukraine crisis to move closer to Russia’s borders.
Antonov said on March 5: "Instead of uniting forces to fight evil, the worst of which is terrorism, Western nations are drawing new divisive lines, trying to realize containment schemes against unwelcome states.
"Today, Russia has been chosen as the target."
RT also posted video footage of what it said were a delivery by the U.S. of M1A2 Abrams tanks and M2A3 Bradley armored vehicles to Latvia, adding the tanks had arrived via Riga Freeport after being offloaded from the New York-based vessel Liberty Promise.
RT also reported that NATO forces carried out drills with their Latvian counterparts on March 6 as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, along with Canadian and American soldiers, adding similar drills had also taken place in Poland.
A spokesman for the US Embassy in Poland said the "temporary" deployment of U.S. troops in Poland and the Baltic states had been extended to 2015, according to RT.
