Send Message To Russia, NATO Secretary General: It's Never Too Late To Stop Preparing For War

NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg. (Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Jens Stoltenberg on Saturday urged Moscow to stop preparing for an attack on Ukraine or face harsh consequences amid fears of an imminent invasion.

"It is never too late for Russia to step down, stop preparing for war and start engaging in diplomatic talks with NATO and NATO allies to find a political solution," he told the Munich Security Conference.

"If Russia wants to divide us, they get the opposite, they get a more united NATO. And if Russia wants less NATO on its borders, they get the opposite, they get more NATO," he added.

As previously reported, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched drills by a strategic nuclear missile force on Saturday, while Washington said Russian troops converging near the Ukrainian border were "ready to strike".

President Putin sat watching the drills on screen together with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, from what the Kremlin describes as a 'situation control center'.

Russian strategic military exercise. (Twitter/@mod_russia screenshot)

Russia's move has drawn concerns from the United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. He said the nuclear drills sparked concern among defense leaders around the world, given the Russian military's focus on a massive force build-up around Ukraine.

"When you add a very sophisticated exercise with a strategic nuclear force, it complicates things to the point where you could have an accident or an error," he said.

For information, the Kremlin said all missiles launched by Russia's strategic forces in the exercise, whether launched from land, sea, or air, successfully hit targets, in exercises that President Putin directly supervised, as reported by TASS.

The types of missiles successfully launched include Kinzhal hypersonic aeroballistic missiles, Kalibr cruise missiles, and Tsirkon hypersonic missiles, Iskander land-based cruise missiles, Yars intercontinental ballistic missiles, air-launched cruise missiles from the Tu-95MS strategic long-range missile carrier bomber, to missiles. The Sineva ballistic missile was launched by a nuclear-powered strategic submarine.