A boy makes snow ball while local residents in background, take part in military defense training, in Kyiv, Ukraine. Russia's foreign minister claims that NATO wants to pull Ukraine into the alliance, amid escalating tensions over NATO expansion and fears that Russia is preparing to invade Ukraine. Since 2014, Ukraine has been trying to wrestle back Luhansk, a breakaway region, from the separatists supported by Moscow. While Ukraine's simmering conflict with the separatists never went away, the area has come back into focus internationally in recent weeks as the U.S. and its NATO allies have expressed concern that a buildup of about 100,000 Russian troops near Ukraine reflects Moscow's intention to invade its ex-Soviet neighbor. The Kremlin says it has no plans to invade, but it has offered little optimism that its security demands about the NATO alliance's eastward expansion will be met. 📸: Efrem Lukatsky, @apnews