Russia's nuclear rhetoric irresponsible, says Nato

Russia is irresponsibly stepping up its nuclear rhetoric in a bid to rattle the west, Nato's military chief has said, underlining the alliance's concern about Russian threats to deploy nuclear weapons in Crimea.

Warning that nuclear nations had to to be careful in both actions and words, Gen Philip Breedlove said Moscow was deliberately using threatening language in a bid to "give pause to Nato's decision-making".

"This discussion of nukes and the possibility of moving nukes into certain areas or employing nukes if something had not gone correctly in Crimea and all these other things, which have been put out there - this is not responsible language from a nuclear nation," he said at meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Antalya, Turkey.

Nato diplomats have been struck by Russia's aggressive discussion of the use of nuclear weapons, noting a pattern of threats that were rarely seen even at the height of the Cold War. It is prompting a potential rethink of the military alliance's planning on deterrence and nuclear doctrine, in part to ensure no miscalculations are made in a crisis.

Gen Breedlove's comments were reinforced in a Nato joint statement with Ukraine, which said the foreign ministers were "deeply concerned by statements of the Russian leadership with regard to possible future stationing of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems in Crimea, which would be destabilising".

Following Russia's annexation of Crimea, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov's suggested last year that it was as legitimate to deploy weapons there as any other part of Russia, a position reiterated by a senior Russian foreign ministry official in March. Gen Breedlove last year noted that Russia was moving forces to Crimea capable of deploying tactical nuclear weapons.

The foreign ministers in Antalya put on a united front in urging President Vladimir Putin of Russia to stop its "continued and deliberate destabilisation of Ukraine" and meet its obligations in implementing the Minsk ceasefire accord.

Speaking after a four-hour meeting with Mr Putin on Monday, John Kerry, the US secretary of state, noted Moscow was coming to a "critical" moment to make good on its responsibilities.

While noting the "enormous moment of opportunity" for Russia to bring a close to fighting in eastern Ukraine, Mr Kerry gave no detail on any potential breakthrough in his talks with Mr Putin in Sochi, the most senior visit to Russia since the Ukraine crisis erupted.

Even as he noted the persistent ceasefire violations, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany's foreign minister, struck a more upbeat tone in noting "progress in the last couple of days" through the establishment of working groups involving representatives of the Kiev government and Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas region.

Since the outbreak of the conflict in eastern Ukraine last year, more than 6,000 people have been killed, 15,000 wounded and a million displaced. While the latest ceasefire accord has brought a lull in fighting, there have been violations throughout. Kiev and western countries remain worried that Russian-backed forces could launch a new assault to create a land bridge linking Russia to Crimea.

Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary-general, said the ceasefire in Ukraine was "ever more fragile". Gen Breedlove said the situation in eastern Ukraine was "more volatile".

"We see training, we see re-equipping, we see new forces, new money, organisation, increased command-and-control, all these things are in a pattern across the past several times where we've seen a push," he told reporters.

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