People sing the Ukrainian national anthem during an anti-war rally at Independence Square in Kiev yesterday. Russia’s defence ministry said it was complying with international troop limits near its border with Ukraine, after Nato’s top military commander voiced concern over what he said was a large Russian force. Photo: Gleb Garanich/Reuters

Nato’s top military commander said yesterday that Russia had built up a large force on Ukraine’s eastern border and he was worried Moscow may be eyeing Moldova’s mainly Russian-speaking separatist Transdniestria region after annexing Crimea.

Nato’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, US Air Force General Philip Breedlove, voiced concern about Moscow using a tactic of snap military exercises to prepare its forces for possible rapid incursions into a neighbouring state, as it had done in the case of Ukraine’s Crimea region.

Russia launched a new military exercise, involving 8,500 artillery men, near Ukraine’s border 10 days ago.

Breedlove said that the Russian tactic should lead the 28-nation Western military alliance to rethink the positioning and readiness of its forces in eastern Europe so that they were ready to counter Moscow’s moves.

“A snap exercise puts an incredible force at a border. The force that is at the Ukrainian border now to the east is very, very sizeable and very, very ready,” he said.

“You cannot defend against that if you are not there to defend against it. So I think we need to think about our allies, the positioning of our forces in the alliance and the readiness of those forces... such that we can be there to defend against it if required, especially in the Baltics and other places.”

Nato needs to rethink positioning of forces

Ukraine is not a Nato member, but Moscow’s intervention in Crimea has caused alarm particularly in ex-Soviet republics in the Baltics, which are now members of Nato.

Nato had tried to make Russia a partner but “now it is very clear that Russia is acting much more like an adversary than a partner,” Breedlove said.

He voiced concern that Russia could have Transdniestria in its sights after Crimea, saying that, in Russia’s view, the separatist region of Moldova was the “next place where Russian-speaking people may need to be incorporated.”

Some of the elements of the Crimea scenario are also present in Transdniestria, which lies on Ukraine’s western border but is just a few hundred kilometres from Crimea.

“There is absolutely sufficient (Russian) force postured on the eastern border of Ukraine to run to Transdniestria if the decision was made to do that and that is very worrisome,” Breedlove said.

In Moscow, Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov said Russia was complying with international troop limits near the border with Ukraine, and international inspectors had conducted missions in the last month to check on Russian troop movements.

“We have nothing to hide there,” Antonov was quoted by state RIA and Itar-Tass news agencies as saying.