VIENNA, March 21. /TASS/. The countries of the North Atlantic Alliance are no longer hushing up the fact that their soldiers are on Ukrainian soil and are stepping up hybrid aggression against Russia, Russia’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the OSCE Maxim Buyakevich told a meeting of the European security agency’s Permanent Council.

"NATO countries are ramping up hybrid aggression against Russia, including through indirect participation in the armed confrontation with Russian servicemen in Ukraine. NATO has stopped hiding the fact that their servicemen are in Ukraine, including to take part in organizing and planning military operations. Former and current military personnel of NATO countries are in the territories controlled by the Kiev regime as consultants, operators of technically sophisticated weapons, as well as mercenaries," Buyakevich stressed.

The Russian diplomat also noted that the growing involvement of NATO countries in the Ukrainian conflict "only further consolidates Russian society in confronting external threats." "There is no place nor can there be a place for NATO servicemen and military hardware on Russian soil," the deputy ambassador to the OSCE stressed.

"Russia will do all it can to ensure that neither military nor any other threats to neighboring sovereign states come from the territory of Ukraine," he summed up.