NATO Warns Russia Against Further Intervention In Ukraine

NATO has warned Russia that further intervention in Ukraine would be a "historic mistake" with grave consequences, reports BBC. 

Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Moscow must pull back troops it has massed on the Ukrainian border.

"I urge Russia to step back and not escalate the situation in east Ukraine,"  Rasmussen said in Paris where he was attending a seminar on NATO reforms. 

He called on Russia to "pull back the tens of thousands of troops" it had massed on Ukraine's borders and "engage in a genuine dialogue with the Ukrainian authorities".

Meanwhile, the European Commission is setting up a special "Support Group for Ukraine" to co-ordinate assistance, an EU diplomatic source told BBC News.

The group will consist of several dozen people and its work could be extended to cover fellow ex-Soviet states Georgia and Moldova, the source added.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, addressing a US Senate panel, said Russian special forces and agents had been "the catalyst behind the chaos of the last 24 hours".

Recent events, he said, "could potentially be a contrived pretext for military intervention just as we saw in Crimea".

A senior Russian parliamentarian, Senator Viktor Ozerov, stressed that President Putin could theoretically send troops anywhere in Ukraine under the powers given to him by parliament that allowed him to move forces into Crimea. 

Meanwhile, The Russian government claimed on Tuesday that there are more than 100 American “mercenaries” from a defense contracting company disguised as Ukrainian troops, a claim the American firm and top U.S. officials deny.

The Russian Foreign Ministry made the allegation in a statement that accused Ukrainian...