Stoltenberg: NATO To More Than Double Size Of Elite Force
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said June 22 the alliance will approve plans this week to more than double the size of its rapid-response force.
Speaking ahead of a June 24-26 meeting in Brussels, Stoltenberg said, "NATO defense ministers ... [will] make a decision to further increase the strength and capacity of the 13,000-strong NATO Response Force (NRF) to 30,000 or 40,000 troops."
Stoltenberg said the alliance was also making steady progress on beefing up an NRF spearhead unit known as the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force with a full complement of resources.
The 5,000-strong unit able to deploy within days, not months, was set up by NATO leaders at a summit in September.
Stoltenberg also said NATO would "speed up" its decision-making process to meet the new challenges, including setting up a new logistics headquarters unit within the overall command structure.
Based on reporting by Reuters and dpa
RFE/RL's Multimedia Department has just issued this video report on attacks on two branches of Sberbank in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, which were damaged by explosions early on June 22. No casualties were reported. The Russian bank has come under attack several times since the start of the crisis in Ukraine.
Here's an update from our news desk:
Russian President Vladimir Putin has told French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel that Ukrainian forces must "immediately" stop shelling in Eastern Ukraine.
The Kremlin says Putin made the comments in a phone conversation on June 22, ahead of a June 23 meeting in Paris of foreign ministers from Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine.
A source close to the French president was quoted as saying Hollande and Merkel "raised the need to put pressure on the various parties" given the "insufficient" progress in resolving the Ukraine crisis.
Fighting between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists has killed more than 6,400 people in eastern Ukraine since April 2014.
A cease-fire agreement agreed in Minsk in February has proven extremely shaky, with sporadic clashes continuing in parts of the conflict zone.
(Reuters, AFP)