NATO warns on Russian troops amid call to honour Ukraine peace plan

NATO warned on Nov. 18 of a "very serious" build-up of Russian soldiers and weapons inside Ukraine and on its border as Germany's foreign minister urged Kyiv and Moscow to respect a tattered peace plan.
      
The West is keeping up pressure on Russia over Ukraine following a bad-tempered G20 summit in Australia at the weekend which Russian President Vladimir Putin left early.
      
In Brussels, NATO's head Jens Stoltenberg issued a stark warning to Moscow over the seven-month conflict in Ukraine's east which has killed over 4,100 people and plunged relations between the West and Russia to a post-Cold War low.
      
Stoltenberg said there was a "very serious build-up" of troops, artillery and air defence systems inside Ukraine and on the Russian side of the border as he arrived to meet European Union defence ministers in Brussels.
      
"Russia has a choice. Russia can either be part of a peaceful negotiated solution or Russia can continue on a path of isolation," Stoltenberg said. "The international community calls on Russia to be part of the solution."       

At the same time, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier met Ukraine's pro-Western leaders, before crunch talks later Tuesday in Moscow with Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.
      
The meeting will be the first by a senior European minister since July. Germany is playing the lead role in mediating the crisis with Russia.
     
Steinmeier said a peace plan agreed in Belarus in September, including a frequently violated ceasefire, "were not perfect but they do form a basis. We have to fulfil the agreements."       

Following a meeting with Berlin's top diplomat, Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk repeated calls for US...