NATO leaders build united front against Russia on Ukraine

NEWPORT, United Kingdom, Sept 4 (AFP): NATO leaders will aim Thursday to show unity against Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, after France suspended delivery of a warship to Moscow despite a surprise peace plan put forward by the Kremlin.

Ukraine and the new threats posed by Islamic extremists in Iraq, Syria and beyond will dominate the two-day summit in Newport in Britain, along with a troubled withdrawal from Afghanistan.

NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen warned that Russian intervention in Ukraine is the most serious security threat since the Cold War, one which the 28 member states ignore at their peril.

US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron vowed to stand together in support of Ukraine against Russia in a joint statement in The Times newspaper on Thursday.

"Russia has ripped up the rulebook with its illegal, self-declared annexation of Crimea and its troops on Ukrainian soil threatening and undermining a sovereign nation state," the two leaders wrote in an op-ed piece.

""We should support Ukraine's right to determine its own democratic future and continue our efforts to enhance Ukrainian capabilities."

To highlight support for Kiev, leaders will meet Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for a session of the NATO-Ukraine Council, set up after the country became an alliance partner in 1997.

Even before the official start of the summit at 1045 GMT, British Prime Minister David Cameron has called talks with Poroshenko and the leaders of France, Germany, Italy and the United States.

That meeting will "send a clear signal of their support for Ukraine's sovereignty and that the onus is on Russia to de-escalate the situation," a British government source said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday pre-empted the NATO summit, unveiling a seven-point Ukraine peace plan to produce a ceasefire on Friday, the day when the European Union is expected to announce additional tough economic sanctions against Moscow.

Putin appealed for both sides to lay down their weapons after nearly five months of fighting that has killed 2,600 people and been blamed by both Kiev and its Western allies on Putin's attempts to seize back former Soviet and tsarist lands.

Poroshenko said the seven-point peace blueprint was agreed during a phone exchange with Putin.

However, Ukraine Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk swiftly rejected Putin's plan as just the latest "attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of the international community".