Rasmussen: Russia's aggression is greatest challenge to Europe's security

Russia's aggression against Ukraine is the greatest challenge to Europe's security in a generation.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said this at a briefing in Warsaw, a Ukrinform correspondent reported.

"Russia's illegal and illegitimate aggression against Ukraine is the greatest challenge to Europe's security in a generation. So we have rightly reinforced the defense of our allies," Rasmussen said.

He said that ships and aircraft from across NATO were currently present from the Baltic to the Black Sea.

"We stand ready to take further steps, with enhanced exercises, updated defense plans, and appropriate deployments. We have also reinforced our support to Ukraine. For example, by helping to strengthen its defense reforms and the protection of critical infrastructure," Rasmussen said.

He said that NATO had sent an unmistakable message to Russia that its behavior does not belong in the 21st century, whereas its rhetoric draws on obscure cliches of the Cold War.

Rasmussen also said that to compare what happened in Kyiv in February 2014 with what is happening today in eastern Ukraine was "totally misleading" and "hypocritical."

"Public protests against any government are part of democracy. But violent pro-Russian separatists, armed with heavy weapons, who occupy public building and who take hostages, are not part of any democracy. And if these groups swear open allegiance to Russia, whose troops are massed on Ukraineэs borders, and who has grabbed a piece of Ukraine, that is not democracy," he said.