Russia lashed out at NATO on Monday, accusing the alliance of risking Europe with military drills linked to a spike in tensions over the Ukraine crisis.
Russia lashed out at NATO on Monday, accusing the alliance of risking Europe with military drills linked to a spike in tensions over the Ukraine crisis.
Russia's deputy foreign minister Alexei Meshkov said the US-led military alliance was "trying to destabilize the world's most stable region".
"Endless military exercises, the deployment of nuclear-capable planes to Baltic countries" will lead to the "destruction" of stability and security in the region, he told the Interfax news agency.
The comments came on the eve of a meeting of foreign ministers from NATO's 28 member states in Brussels.
The talks will be dominated by Ukraine, where fighting in the east between government forces and pro-Russian separatist rebels has killed over 4,300 people and displaced nearly one million since April.
The West accuses Moscow of stoking the conflict and has imposed sanctions against Russia, sending relations plunging to Cold War lows.
On the ground, Ukraine's military said its forces and Russian generals had agreed a temporary ceasefire around the airport in rebel-held Donetsk that has been the focus of fighting for months.
A pro-Russian rebel leader confirmed to media outlets that top-level negotiations were ongoing but that no final agreement was expected before Tuesday.
US President Barack Obama and new European Council chief Donald Tusk expressed their concern over the Ukraine crisis in their first telephone call on Monday, and urged Russia to pull back from the country's east.
We "agreed on how important it is for Russia to withdraw from eastern Ukraine, to stop supplying troops and equipment, to allow effective control of the border," Tusk said in a statement.
"The European Union and the United States continue working together closely, including on sanctions as well as on financial support to Ukraine. We agreed to stay united and to keep a steady course."
Moscow fiercely rejects any claims that it is involved in the fighting in east Ukraine but gives open political backing to the rebels, who now boast the heavy weaponry of a regular army.
