NATO allies are on high alert as tensions rise in Ukraine

“NATO will continue to take all necessary steps to protect and defend all allies, including strengthening the eastern part of the Alliance,” said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. Said in a statement On Monday, it welcomed the additional contributions of allies to the military alliance.

Latvia’s Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvič has called on NATO to address the “continuous” Russian and Belarusian military on the Ukrainian border with “appropriate” counter-measures.

“It is time to increase the presence of Allied forces in the eastern part of the Alliance as a security and preventive measure,” he added.

Speaking to reporters on his way to the EU Foreign Council in Brussels on Monday, the camp’s chief diplomat Joseph Borel said no decision had been made on ordering EU embassy staff and their families to leave Ukraine.

“We’m not going to do that because we do not know any specific reasons,” Borel said.

The UK Foreign Office announced on Monday that some British embassy staff and dependents would be withdrawn from Kiev in response to growing threats from Russia.

A spokesman for Elysee told CNN that representatives of the four countries involved in the “Normandy Format” talks – France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine – would meet on Wednesday to discuss the situation in Ukraine.