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NATO: 1,000 Russian troops in Ukraine

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- Russia still has about 1,000 troops inside eastern Ukraine, a NATO military officer said Thursday, a week after Ukraine's government and pro-Russian rebels agreed to a ceasefire aimed at ending months of conflict.

NATO also sees 20,000 more Russian troops aligned along the border, the NATO officer told CNN. He was not named according to standard practice in the organization.

NATO believes that these numbers amount to a large and effective military force, the officer said. In addition to the troop numbers, NATO continues to see sophisticated Russian military equipment in Ukraine.

NATO remains concerned and urges Russia to engage with the international community and Ukraine to find a political solution to the crisis, the officer said.

Moscow has consistently denied allegations by Kiev and the West that Russia has troops in Ukraine, and that it has armed and supported the rebels.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said some 70% of the Russian troops believed to have been in Ukraine had withdrawn back across the border, according to the national news agency Ukrinform.

Information released by Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council on Thursday indicated that the rebel forces control a strip of eastern Ukraine running from the city of Luhansk down to the Sea of Azov.

'Very fragile' ceasefire

The truce was signed Friday after talks in Minsk, Belarus, between representatives of Ukraine, the rebels and Russia.

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NATO: 1,000 Russian troops in Ukraine

Ukraine Rebels Need NATO Veto to End War: Ex-Putin Envoy

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Ukraine needs to give its regions veto power over future membership in NATO and the European Union to finally end the uprising by pro-Russian separatists in the east, a former envoy of President Vladimir Putin said.

The easternmost Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where Russian is the main language, should also be granted greater control over their security forces, similar to the devolution of power in the Balkans after the breakup of Yugoslavia, as well as their finances, Vladimir Lukin said in an interview in Moscow.

Eastern Ukraine, or most of it, as far as Im aware, doesnt want to be part of NATO, said Lukin, who represented Russia at February talks in Kiev between then-President Viktor Yanukovych and opposition leaders who later ousted him. Russia is also against this, but the main thing is that eastern Ukraine is opposed and has made it abundantly clear, he said, stressing that he was speaking in a personal capacity.

In those talks, which were also attended by the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland, Yanukovych agreed to hold early presidential elections by December and form a national unity government. Within hours, though, the threat of a violent overthrow forced him to flee Kiev for Russia in what Putin later called a far-right coup.

Putin and Yanukovychs successor, Petro Poroshenko, last week reached an agreement that paved the way for a Sept. 5 cease-fire accord that included vague pledges to decentralize power. Putin has railed against the eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, formed in 1949 in part to counter the Soviet Union, and cited concern over neighboring Ukraines possible membership in the U.S.-led military bloc when he annexed Crimea in March.

Poroshenko, 48, has indicated hes ready to grant more autonomy in the east, though he hasnt provided details. He said hell send a draft law on temporary self-governance in certain districts of Luhansk and Donetsk to parliament next week, while ruling out independence for those regions.

Lukin, 77, Russias ambassador to the U.S. in 1992-1994, said one way to ensure that Donetsk and Luhansk have the ability to block Ukraines membership in NATO, as well as the EU, is to introduce constitutional changes requiring that such actions be supported by a majority of the populations of each region.

The guarantees for eastern Ukraine are very simple, Lukin said in the Russian capital. Each region must have the right to express its will. This is my personal view, of course. Its not up to me.

Lukin, a founder of the pro-democracy Yabloko political party in the 1990s, stepped down as Russias human rights commissioner in March after serving two Kremlin-appointed five-year terms. He helped free international observers held by the rebels in Ukraine in May and June, on the first occasion traveling to Slovyansk in person to negotiate their freedom. Hes currently the president of the Russian Paralympic Committee.

Introducing direct elections for governor and ending the current practice of appointment by the central government could also help ensure the peace, Lukin said. That could be accompanied by allowing the regions to retain most of the taxes they collect, he said, since Donetsk and Luhansk, which make up the industrial and coal-producing heartland known as Donbas, believe theyre giving more to Kiev than theyre getting.

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Ukraine Rebels Need NATO Veto to End War: Ex-Putin Envoy

Russia’s ‘Black Sea Fleet’ In Crimea Stage ‘Target Practice’ Amid NATO Drills! – Video

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Russia #39;s #39;Black Sea Fleet #39; In Crimea Stage #39;Target Practice #39; Amid NATO Drills!
http://www.undergroundworldnews.com The Russian Black Sea fleet has carried out a successful test of its new-generation Bastion coastal defense system, as part of naval exercises Moscow says...

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Russia's 'Black Sea Fleet' In Crimea Stage 'Target Practice' Amid NATO Drills! - Video

Germany: ‘No war with Russia’ – Anti-NATO protesters rally in Berlin – Video

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Germany: #39;No war with Russia #39; - Anti-NATO protesters rally in Berlin
Video ID: 20140907-018 M/S #39;No war with Russia #39; placards held by protesters, Berlin W/S #39;No war with Russia #39; placards held by protesters M/S Protester holds ...

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Germany: 'No war with Russia' - Anti-NATO protesters rally in Berlin - Video

Georgia: Hagel praises NATO-Georgia relations at Krtsanisi military base – Video

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Georgia: Hagel praises NATO-Georgia relations at Krtsanisi military base
Video ID: 20140907-029 W/S Chuck Hagel and entourage arriving W/S Marquee M/S Irali Alasania shaking hands with Chuck Hagel M/S US soldiers watching the speech SOT, Chuck Hagel, US Secretary...

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Georgia: Hagel praises NATO-Georgia relations at Krtsanisi military base - Video


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