Thread by @latikambourke

NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg: "We are concerned that Russia is trying to stage a pretext for armed attack in Ukraine."

Stoltenberg: Russia has amassed the biggest force in Europe for decades in and around in Ukraine.
Russian intelligence officers are operating in Ukraine - Donbas.

Stoltenberg: I continue to believe that that Nato-Russia council is the best platform to engage when Nato and Russia have issues to discuss.

We are ready to meet, I invited Russia to a series of meetings to address concerns.

Stoltenberg: We have to see a real withdrawal (to be satisfied that Putin is serious about de-escalating).

"The fact that you're putting a battle tank on a train and moving it in some direction doesn't prove that you're withdrawing troops."

Stoltenberg sounds high-pitched and a bit stressed out at this presser.

Usually radiates calm.

Stoltenberg: It remains to be seen as to what they actually do.

Russia's troop building is not part of 'normal activities' it is 'threatening' and they can 'launch an attack with hardly any warning at all.'

Stoltenberg: Regrettably I think what we are seeing now is a new normal for European security.

Where Russia tests fundamental principles and where they're willing to use force and threaten the use of force to intimidate countries in Europe .. we have seen this esp. since 2014

Stoltenberg: We are looking at next steps for a longer-term presence in the eastern part of the alliance including in Romania.

(^ is Putin really the mastermind if he permanently cements Nato's presence closer than it would otherwise have been + unites the West?)