Meanwhile, NATO has countered Russia's claims that the military alliance is destabilizing northern Europe with some accusations of its own (from RFE/RL's Rikard Jozwiak in Brussels):
The head of NATO says Russia has been sending large amounts of weapons to rebels in eastern Ukraine and stepped up its military activity around Europe and the world.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a monthly news conference in Brussels that "efforts for lasting peace continue" despite daily violations of a September cease-fire in the conflict between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists.
"We see a significant military build-up in and around Ukraine, large transfers of Russian advanced weapons, equipment and military personnel to violent separatists, and a major increase in Russian military activity around Europe and beyond," Stoltenberg said.
He said Russia and the separatists are not respecting the cease-fire deal, which aimed to end a conflict that has killed more than 4,300 people since April and driven East-West ties to post-Cold War lows.
This is just in from our news desk:
A senior Russian official has said that Moscow believes NATO is destabilizing northern Europe by holding military exercises there and "transferring aircraft capable of carrying nuclear arms" to the Baltic states.
On December 1, Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksei Meshkov told the Russian news agency Interfax: "This reality is extremely negative."
Meshkov warned that Moscow is doing everything it can "to firmly safeguard the security of Russia and its citizens ... no matter which part of our country it concerns."
At the same time, he said Russia-NATO relations have not reached the "point of no return," despite serious disagreements.
Meshkov's statement came after NATO's top military commander voiced concern that Russia might be moving nuclear capabilities to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in March.
U.S. General Philip Breedlove said November 26 in Kyiv that the United States was "very concerned with the militarization of Crimea."
(Reuters, Interfax, AP)
According to this report, it seems that Kyiv will no longer allow reporters into the Donbas region without a military escort due to the "intensification of subversive groups of the enemy who prey on the Ukrainian mass media."
Here is the latest map of the military situation in eastern Ukraine issued by Kyiv's National Security and Defense Council (click map to enlarge):
