NATO secretary general: Ukraine cease-fire fragile but largely holding

The cease-fire agreement in Ukraine is largely holding, but international monitors are still not being provided with full access to contested zones, the new head of NATO said Wednesday.

Jens Stoltenberg, the former Norwegian prime minister who became secretary general of the alliance last fall, said NATO is focused on supporting the agreement signed last month rather than sending lethal weaponry to help Ukrainian forces defend against Russian-backed separatists there.

For the time being, I can see no better alternative than to try to ensure that the Minsk agreement is fully implemented, Stoltenberg said in an interview. While there is a long way to go, he added, at least the cease-fire has provided us with substantially less fighting. ... Its a fragile cease-fire, but it is a cease-fire.

The Obama administration is under strong pressure from Congress to supply the Ukrainian military with defensive lethal arms such as sophisticated anti-tank weaponry. U.S. officials have acknowledged that the subject is a matter of debate within the administration; President Obama has resisted calls from senior Cabinet officials and NATOs military chief, U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, to send the weapons.

U.S. officials have charged in recent days that Russia is still supplying heavy weaponry to the separatists, along with military personnel to provide training and guidance on the ground. According to monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, there has been some weapons pullback in the disputed areas in eastern Ukraine and some lessening of fighting, but the monitors have been refused entry to some sites, and separatists still control key parts of the border with Russia.

France and Germany helped negotiate the cease-fire, a reiteration of a document first signed last fall in Minsk, the Belarusan capital. Both NATO partners have said they oppose providing lethal arms, on the grounds that doing so would only escalate a conflict that Ukraine could not win against Russian forces.

Stoltenberg, in Washington for much of this week to attend a NATO seminar, will not see Obama during his visit, a fact that prompted reports that the president had snubbed him.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said that the presidents schedule is pretty full and that the notion that the president somehow, or the White House somehow, is failing to return the call to the secretary general is ridiculous.

Stoltenberg pointed out that he met Obama at NATOs summit in Wales last fall and said he would meet with him again. Our teams have been and are looking into when we can find a convenient date, he said.

Its not about that, he said. Its about the importance of NATO and the United States working closely together, and we are.

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NATO secretary general: Ukraine cease-fire fragile but largely holding