Allies of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) agreed to further beef up its forces on its eastern flank near Ukraine but it has no intention of sending troops into Ukraine, NATO's Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said.
NATO did not have combat troops inside Ukraine and it "had no intention of deploying NATO troops to Ukraine," Stoltenberg on Thursday told the press after an extraordinary meeting of the North Atlantic Council.
"We call on Russia to immediately cease its military action, withdraw its forces from Ukraine, and choose diplomacy," said the NATO Secretary-General.
Earlier, NATO's Ambassadors said in a statement they had decided "inline with our defensive planning to protect all allies, to take additional steps to further strengthen deterrence and defense across the Alliance".
"We are deploying additional defensive land and air forces to the eastern part of the alliance, as well as additional maritime assets," they added.
"We have increased the readiness of our forces to respond to all contingencies."
