In spring , the Russian Defense Ministry announced it was planning to deploy additional forces in Crimea as part of beefing up its Black Sea Fleet , including re-deployment by 2016 of nuclear-capable Tupolev Tu-22M3 ( ' Backfire ' ) long-range strike bombers — which used to be the backbone of Soviet naval strike units during the Cold War , but were later withdrawn from bases in Crimea . Such moves alarmed NATO : in November NATO 's top military commander US General Philip Breedlove said that the alliance was " watching for indications " amid fears over the possibility that Russia could move any of its nuclear arsenal to the peninsula . In December , Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said this would be a legitimate action as " Crimea has now become part of a country that has such weapons under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons . " At the NATO Wales summit in early September , the NATO-Ukraine Commission adopted a Joint Statement that " strongly condemned Russia 's illegal and illegitimate self-declared " annexation " of Crimea and its continued and deliberate destabilization of eastern Ukraine in violation of international law " ; this position was re-affirmed in the early December statement by the same body
Wales summit
2014 Wales summit
Russia–NATO relations