The NATO summit was held as the Russian invasion of Ukraine completed a month on Thursday after it was launched by Putin on February 24….reports Asian Lite News
US President Joe Biden said that the NATO has “never been more united than it is today” in the face of Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine.
Addressing the media after a NATO summit here on Thursday, Biden said that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “getting exactly the opposite of what he intended to have as a consequence of going into Ukraine”.
The summit was held as the Russian invasion of Ukraine completed a month on Thursday after it was launched by Putin on February 24.
Biden said the US “has committed to provide over $2 billion in military equipment to Ukraine since I became President — anti-air systems, anti-armor systems, ammunition. And our weapons are flowing into Ukraine as I speak”.
Putin was banking on NATO being split, but it has never been more united than it is today. pic.twitter.com/HJ7GnOpGjg
“And today, I’m announcing the US have prepared to commit more than $1 billion in humanitarian assistance to help get relief to millions of Ukrainians affected by the war in Ukraine.”
The President said that his country will welcome 100,000 Ukrainians and also invest an additional $320 million to “bolster democratic resilience and defend human rights in Ukraine and neighbouring countries”.
Biden also announced new sanctions on over 400 individuals and entities, including members of the Duma (Russian Parliament), Oligarchs, and Russian defence companies.
“In addition to the 100,000 US forces now stationed in Europe to defend NATO territory, NATO established, as you already know, four new battle groups in Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Slovakia to reinforce the eastern front.
“Between now and the NATO summit in June, we will develop plans for additional forces and capabilities to strengthen NATO’s defenses.
“We will adopt an updated Strategic Concept to ensure NATO is ready to meet any challenge in the new and more dangerous security environment,” the American President added.
Biden will participate in meetings of NATO, the European Union and G7 Thursday before visiting Poland Friday and Saturday, reports Asian Lite News
President Joe Biden and Western allies opened the first of three summits Thursday focused on increasing pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin over his war in Ukraine while tending to the economic and security fallout spreading across Europe and the world.
Biden and the leaders of other NATO countries met at the alliance’s headquarters where they posed for a group photo memorializing the urgent gathering before retreating behind closed doors for their summit, which was expected to last several hours.
Over the course of Thursday, the European diplomatic capital is hosting an emergency NATO summit as well as a gathering of the Group of Seven industrialized nations and a summit of the 27 members of the European Union. Biden will attend all three meetings and plans to hold a news conference at the end of the day.
Biden arrived here late Wednesday with the hopes of nudging allies to enact new sanctions on Russia, which has already seen its economy crippled by a steady stream of bans, boycotts and penalties over the past four weeks.
Pic credits @POTUS
While the West has been largely unified in confronting Russia after it invaded Ukraine, there’s wide acknowledgement that unity will be tested as the costs of war chip at the global economy.
The bolstering of forces along NATO’s eastern flank, almost certainly for at least the next 5-10 years if Russia is to be effectively dissuaded, will also put pressure on national budgets.
“We need to do more, and therefore we need to invest more. There is a new sense of urgency and I expect that the leaders will agree to accelerate the investments in defense,” said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg before chairing the security alliance’s summit.
En route to Brussels aboard Air Force One, Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters that “what we would like to hear is that the resolve and unity that we’ve seen for the past month will endure for as long as it takes.”
The energy crisis exacerbated by the war will be a particularly hot topic at the European Council summit, where leaders from Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece are hoping for an urgent, coordinated bloc-wide response. EU officials have said they will seek US help on a plan to top up natural gas storage facilities for next winter, and they also want the bloc to jointly purchase gas.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has dismissed calls to boycott Russian energy supplies, saying it would cause significant damage to his country’s economy. Scholz is facing pressure from environmental activists to quickly wean Germany off Russian energy, but he said the process will have to be gradual.
“To do so from one day to the next would mean plunging our country and all of Europe into recession,” Scholz said Wednesday.
Poland and other eastern flank NATO countries will also be looking for clarity on how the United States and fellow European nations can assist in dealing with their growing concerns about Russian aggression as well as a spiraling refugee crisis. More than 3.5 million refugees have fled Ukraine in recent weeks, including more than 2 million to Poland.
Biden is scheduled to travel to Poland on Friday, where both issues are expected to be at the center of talks with President Andrzej Duda. Another significant moment could come shortly before Biden returns to Washington on Saturday. The White House said he plans to “deliver remarks on the united efforts of the free world to support the people of Ukraine, hold Russia accountable for its brutal war, and defend a future that is rooted in democratic principles.”
NAT0 summit in Brussels Pic credits @alexanderdecroo
Sullivan said that Biden and fellow leaders would aim to “set out a longer-term game plan” for what forces and capabilities are going to be required for the alliance’s eastern flank countries.
Four new NATO battlegroups, which usually number between 1,000-1,500 troops, are being set up in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is expected to address the NATO summit by video, said late Wednesday that he wants the alliance to “declare that it will fully assist Ukraine to win this war” by supplying any weapons necessary.
All the while, national security officials from Washington to Warsaw are increasingly worried that Putin might deploy chemical, biological or even nuclear weaponry. Sullivan said the allies would consult on how to respond to “potential contingencies” of that sort, including “this whole question of the potential use of nuclear weapons.”
Biden, before departing for Brussels on Wednesday, told reporters that he believed the possibility of Russia deploying chemical weapons was a “real threat.”
— Alexander De Croo 🇧🇪🇪🇺 (@alexanderdecroo) March 24, 2022
Stoltenberg would not be drawn Thursday on whether such a strike is a red line that would draw the alliance into war with Russia. “I will not speculate beyond the fact that NATO is always ready to defend, to protect and to react to any type of attack on a NATO allied country,” he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in a CNN interview this week said that Russia could consider using its nuclear weapons if it felt there was “an existential threat for our country.”
The head of the European Union’s executive arm said she wanted to discuss with Biden the possibility of securing extra deliveries of liquefied natural gas from the United States for the 27-nation bloc.
Speaking at the European Parliament ahead of Biden’s visit, Ursula von der Leyen said the EU was seeking a a commitment for additional LNG supplies from the US “for the next two winters.”
The EU imports 90 percent of the natural gas used to generate electricity, heat homes and supply industry, with Russia supplying almost 40 percent of EU gas and a quarter of its oil. The bloc is looking at ways to reduce its dependence on Russian gas by diversifying suppliers.
Sullivan said the United States was looking for ways to “surge” LNG supplies to Europe to help make up for supply disruptions.
Biden, for his part, was expected to detail plans for new sanctions against Russia and humanitarian assistance for the region.
One new sanctions option that Biden is weighing is to target members of the Russian State Duma, the lower house of parliament, according to a US official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations. The official added that a final decision hadn’t been made and that the new sanctions would be rolled out in coordination with Western allies.
NATO Secretary-General explained how there were hundreds of thousands of Allied troops at heightened readiness across the alliance, including 100,000 US troops in Europe…reports Asian Lite News
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is set to considerably increase forces deployed on its eastern flank, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said.
Addressing a news conference on the eve of an extraordinary NATO summit to discuss the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, Stoltenberg added that he expected allies to agree to strengthen NATO’s position “on land, in the air, and at sea”.
“The first step is the deployment of four new NATO battlegroups. In Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. Along with our existing forces in the Baltic countries and Poland, this means that we will have eight multinational NATO battlegroups all along the eastern flank. From the Baltic to the Black Sea,” he said.
Pic credits @NATOpress
NATO Secretary-General explained how there were hundreds of thousands of Allied troops at heightened readiness across the alliance, including 100,000 US troops in Europe and 40,000 troops under direct NATO command, mostly in the eastern part of the alliance. These are backed by major air and naval power, including five carrier strike groups in the High North and the Mediterranean.
“We face a new reality for our security. So we must reset our deterrence and defense for the longer-term,” he stressed, adding that “there is a new sense of urgency. Because we cannot take peace for granted.”
Stoltenberg said he expected Allies to agree to provide additional support, including cybersecurity assistance as well as with equipment to help Ukraine protect against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to address the meeting, Xinhua news agency reported.
He added that any use of biological or chemical weapons would have “far-reaching consequences,” while stressing that NATO is ready to “protect and defend allies against any threat, any time”.
The NATO summit will be convened in Brussels on Thursday. In a show of Western unity against the war in Ukraine, Brussels will also host a G7 and an EU summit on Thursday.
President Biden will join an extraordinary NATO summit on March 24 to discuss ongoing deterrence and defence efforts in response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine, reports Asian Lite Newsdesk
US President Joe Biden will travel to Belgium to attend an extraordinary NATO summit on March 24 along with participating in a European Council Summit, a White House statement informed on Tuesday.
“President Biden will join an extraordinary NATO summit on March 24 to discuss ongoing deterrence and defence efforts in response to Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified attack on Ukraine as well as to reaffirm our ironclad commitment to our NATO Allies,” said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.
“President Biden will also join a scheduled European Council Summit to discuss our shared concerns about Ukraine, including transatlantic efforts to impose economic costs on Russia, provide humanitarian support to those affected by the violence, and address other challenges related to the conflict,” she further said.
“In these testing times, our transatlantic action is more important than ever. @POTUS [Biden] will join EU leaders Thursday 24 March to discuss support for #Ukraine and its people, strengthening transatlantic cooperation in responding to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine @ZelenskyyUa [Volodymyr Zelenskyy],” European Council President Charles Michel said in a tweet.
However, whether President Biden would travel to Poland to meet his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy could not be confirmed with Press Secretary Psaki saying that “We are still working through the final details of President Biden’s trip,” Sputnik reported.
Earlier, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg informed on Tuesday that he is convening an extraordinary summit of the alliance on March 24 over the situation in Ukraine.
“I have convened an extraordinary Summit on 24 March at #NATO HQ. We will address #Russia’s invasion of #Ukraine, our strong support for Ukraine, and further strengthening NATO’s deterrence & defence. At this critical time, North America & Europe must continue to stand together,” Stoltenberg tweeted.
The development comes as the fourth round of talks between Russia and Ukraine resumed in Belarus.
“Consultations on the main negotiation platform renewed. General regulation matters, ceasefire, withdrawal of troops from the territory of the country,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s aide tweeted.
Meanwhile, Russia has imposed sanctions against US President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other US officials. Russia is also imposing sanctions against Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and over 300 lawmakers. Moscow also imposed sanctions against Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly and Defense Minister Anita Anand.
As Russian troops continued their advance towards Kyiv, the city imposed a new curfew from 8 pm (Local Time) on March 15 until 7 am on March 17. Mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, said that the residents are only allowed to go outside to head to the bomb shelters. (ANI)
Volodymyr Zelenskyy President of Ukraine.(photo:Facebook)
Zelenskyy added that security guarantees from NATO allies would be necessary to keep Ukraine safe amid Russia’s invasion of the Eastern European country…reports Asian Lite News
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country “must admit” that it wouldn’t join NATO.
“It is clear that Ukraine is not a member of NATO. We understand that. We are adequate people,” Zelenskyy said in a meeting with leaders of the Joint Expeditionary Force.
“For years, we have heard about the supposedly open door, but we have also heard that we should not enter, and this is true and we must admit it,” he said of Ukraine’s attempts to join NATO, which started as early as 2008.
But Zelenskyy added that security guarantees from NATO allies would be necessary to keep Ukraine safe amid Russia’s invasion of the Eastern European country.
“The Russian invasion of Ukraine destroyed everything that security in our region — and I am sure international security — was based on,” he said, “the weight of the organizations we all hoped for, the force of international conventions. It has also called into question the world’s most powerful alliance, NATO.”
Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s skies needed to be protected the same way that NATO allies’ skies were but added that he understood there was always a “but” in these situations.
“But what will be NATO’s response to allies in Eastern Europe if they are already seeking protection, if Russian missiles hit, God forbid, if Russian planes” enter their territory? he asked, adding that Russian missiles had already struck about 12 miles from NATO borders.
“I ask you: Help yourself by helping us,” he said. “You know what weapons we need. You know what means of protection we need. You know we crucially need airplanes. It would be extremely difficult for us without your efforts. I am grateful to you. But understand: We need more.”
Zelenskyy added: “I am glad that our people are beginning to understand this and rely on themselves and our partners who help us.”
Ukraine’s first bid to join NATO took place in 2008, and its more recent push has been cited as largely the reason Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine last month.
Since then, Zelenskyy has said he’s “cooled” on joining NATO, saying: “The alliance is afraid of controversial things and confrontation with Russia.”
He refused to “speculate about any military response from the NATO side” if such a chemical attack happened…reports Asian Lite News
NATO is worried Russia is gearing up to carry out a chemical attack in Ukraine, secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday, ahead of a meeting of the alliance’s defence ministers.
“We are concerned that Moscow could stage a false flag operation possibly including chemical weapons,” the NATO chief told reporters, citing “absurd claims” from Russia that Ukraine possesses biological weapons labs.
NATO, he said, remains “very vigilant” on that risk and stressed that Russia would have “a high price to pay” if it carried out such a “violation of international law”.
He refused to “speculate about any military response from the NATO side” if such a chemical attack happened.
Wednesday’s meeting, Stoltenberg said, would cover “concrete measures to reinforce our security for the longer term in all domains” to adapt to the changed threat environment arising from Russia’s “senseless war”.
“This could include substantially more forces in the eastern part of the alliance at higher readiness and with more pre-positioned equipment,” on top of the bolstered NATO forces already sent to NATO countries bordering Ukraine, he said.
A long-scheduled NATO summit in Madrid in June would look at longer-term changes for the alliance.
“It’s important to distinguish greatly about the immediate response — all the tens of thousands more troops, air power and naval power — and then the more long-term adjustment or posture,” to be discussed in June, he said.
Asked about rumours of a possible NATO summit in Brussels next week with leaders including US President Joe Biden, Stoltenberg demurred.
“We are able to convene a NATO summit with NATO leaders on short notice but I cannot go into more details about that now,” he said.
Presidents and prime ministers of the European Union — which accounts for most NATO members — are already to gather in Brussels next Thursday and Friday for a summit focused on Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki again called on the EU to “very quickly give Ukraine candidate status” and added: “We will try to organise defensive weapons”…reports Asian Lite News
Poland on Tuesday called for a NATO peace mission “protected by armed forces” to help Ukraine. “This cannot be an unarmed mission,” Vice Premier Jaroslaw Kaczynski was quoted as saying by the Polish news agency PAP during a visit to Kyiv.
“It must seek to provide humanitarian and peaceful aid to Ukraine.” Kaczynski, along with the Polish, Czech and Slovenian prime ministers, met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister Denys Shmygal. It is the first visit to Kyiv by foreign leaders since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24.
“I think that we need a peacekeeping mission from NATO, or even possibly from a larger international structure, but a mission that will be able to defend itself and that will operate on Ukrainian territory, which will be in this country with the agreement of the president and the government of Ukraine and it will not be a defenceless mission,” Kaczynski said.
It “will strive for peace, to provide humanitarian aid, but at the same time it will be protected by appropriate forces, armed forces,” added Kaczynski, who is also the leader of the ruling conservative party in Poland and is considered the main strategist of government policy.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki again called on the EU to “very quickly give Ukraine candidate status” and added: “We will try to organise defensive weapons”.
The three prime ministers, and Kaczynski, went to Kyiv to “confirm the unequivocal support of the entire European Union for the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine and to present a broad package of support for the Ukrainian state and society,” said a statement posted on the Polish government’s website.
Shortly after their arrival, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Shmygal praised “the courage of the true friends of Ukraine”.
The European leaders travelled to Kyiv as Russian forces attempt to besiege the Ukrainian capital, which has been put under curfew, and their strikes hit some neighbourhoods.
The Ukrainian President also said that he had warned NATO that without preventive sanctions, Russia would begin a war and that Moscow would use Nord Stream 2 as a weapon…reports Asian Lite News
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday urged North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to impose a no-fly zone over his country or see its member states attacked by Russia.
In his virtual address on Monday, Zelenskyy said: “I reiterate that if you do not close our sky, it is only a matter of time before Russian missiles fall on your territory, on NATO territory, on the homes of NATO citizens.”
He spoke a day after thirty-five people were killed and more than 130 injured when Russian troops launched airstrikes on a military training ground, near the border with NATO member Poland.
The Ukrainian President also said that he had warned NATO that without preventive sanctions, Russia would begin a war and that Moscow would use Nord Stream 2 as a weapon.
“I had warned NATO that without preventive sanctions, Russia would begin a war & that Moscow would use Nord Stream 2 as a weapon,” he said.
Earlier Russia claimed that it killed 180 “foreign mercenaries” in a missile strike on Yavoriv military training ground in western Ukraine, according to a media report. Kyiv, however, denied the report terming it “pure Russian propaganda”.
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy said that in a discussion with European Council President Charles Michel, special attention was given to the further negotiation process on Ukraine’s EU membership.
“Regular international talks. With President of the Council @eucopresident, we discussed the issue of increasing financial support for and sanctions pressure on the aggressor. Special attention was paid to the further negotiation process on Ukraine’s EU membership,” Zelenskyy tweeted.
Regular international talks. With President of the 🇪🇺 Council @eucopresident, we discussed the issue of increasing financial support for 🇺🇦 and sanctions pressure on the aggressor. Special attention was paid to the further negotiation process on 🇺🇦’s EU membership.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 13, 2022
He spoke with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Petr Fiala Prime Minister of the Czech Republic and spoke about Ukraine’s struggle against Russian aggression.
Alternate reality seems to have infected Atlanticist media as much as it has officialdom in NATO capitals, writes Prof. Madhav Nalapat
Apart from those who live in a reality manufactured by themselves, it has been some time since the concept of war was expanded to include hybrid and unconventional warfare. Judged by this standard, which is far more accurate than the narrow kinetic prism still clung on to by NATO officials, NATO has already declared war on Russia.
It is not television anchors or the usual gaggle of extreme voices of one tendency or the other who several times a day are openly admitting that their purpose is to finish off Russia through choking its economy to death. And as they are finding their lives smashed at the altar of protecting the image of NATO, it is expected by the geniuses in that organisation that tens of millions of Russian citizens, or Russian generals, will rise in revolt against President Vladimir Putin and turn to the US, the UK, France and Germany for help in choosing their new leader. So confident is NATO of such a strategy succeeding that not once but twice, Emmanuel Macron spoke to Vladimir Putin expecting him to buckle under the sanctions and other measures imposed by NATO members.
(Photo_ukraine_defence_Instagram)
To prevent their own people from hearing the alternative point of view from such voices of reason as Boris Johnson and Jens Stoltenberg, NATO members have banned Russian media channels from beaming their transmissions across the Free World, i.e., themselves. Not that allowing RT or Sputnik would have made any difference to the policy of France and Germany, who nearly eight years ago undertook the responsibility of ensuring that the Ukrainian government implemented the Minsk Agreement. Neither Berlin nor Paris appears to have noticed that Kiev did not even try to implement the agreement reached at together with Russia, although Moscow did.
As for the Ukrainian leadership that assumed charge of the country after President Viktor Yanukovich was deposed through “election by the street” in 2014. From then on, there was decreasing space for Russian-speaking people in Ukraine, who were regarded by Ukrainian-speaking citizens as “not European enough” to qualify for EU membership, a view that has remained unopposed by countries to the west of Ukraine.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg talk to military personnel during a visit to a NATO military base in Tapa, Estonia. (Picture by Tim Hammond No 10 Downing Street)
To the uninitiated, the understandably desperate calls of President Zelensky from an “undisclosed location” in Kiev appeared to have been answered by the emphatic vote in the European Parliament to admit Ukraine into the EU post haste. Ursula von der Leyen, the German aristocrat who speaks these days on behalf of the EU, has made it all but explicit that Ukraine would get fast-tracked as a member of NATO as well as the EU once conditions permit. This is a less than opaque code for “when President Putin is toppled in Moscow the way President Yanukovich was”.
The number of times that Putin has warned that admission of Ukraine into NATO or even the EU was a red line for the Russian Federation, or the warnings of respected Atlanticist strategists including the doyen of that group, George F. Kennan, is too big to count. None of this seems to have had an impact on President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, President Macron and Chancellor Scholz, the most important figures in the Atlantic alliance, now newly revived now that Biden has shifted the focus of Washington away from the Indo-Pacific to what has become a secondary theatre, the Atlantic.
There will be immense damage to the US, Europe and the rest of the world by the unity in irresponsibility shown by the Atlanticist leaders in their making it impossible for Putin to avoid fighting the war that is being thrust on him by the trans-Atlantic alliance. And this is not a relatively minor conflict (in global terms) between Russia and Ukraine. It is the conflict that the EU, UK and the US are entering into with a Russia that since Putin’s takeover has become a formidable military power. If GDP could have decided the outcome of wars, Vietnam would never have prevailed over the US. It has been said that the European powers sleepwalked into the First World War, while Adolf Hitler made the Second World War inevitable from the time he took over Germany in 1933.
In 2022, the US, UK and the US are stumbling towards a third world war that would inevitably involve almost all the great powers of the globe, and cause destruction on a scale not seen before. Not to say that Putin did not warn of this, but as he is a madman in the eyes of the leaders that have so horribly misunderstood his staying power and his propensity for action, they appear to have ignored this warning, and are daily intensifying their war on Russia through more and more measures against that country on an almost daily basis.
During the period when foreign nationals were seeking to leave Yemen, it was India that stepped in to rescue US nationals. This was made possible by incoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi refusing to follow Washington’s advice to join hands against the Houthis. New Delhi maintained links with that group, and as a consequence was able to extricate not just its own nationals but US nationals as well from the conflict zone. Once the debris settles over a Ukraine neutralised through military intervention, it would be because Prime Minister Modi is resisting pressure from Joe Biden, Scott Morrison and Fumio Kishida (who should have known better) to condemn Russia for doing exactly what the country’s leaders stated they would do in the event that Kiev remained a Russophone’s paradise.
The target of the neo-Nazis that Putin is referring to are not the Jews but the Russians, and although this has long become obvious in streets across the country, such a development has been ignored by Free World media such as CNN, BBC, the Guardian and the Washington Post. During the ongoing conflict, when Indian and other students were prevented from leaving the country by a section of Ukrainian officialdom, it was only after Al Jazeera finally broke the silence that had hitherto blanketed pro-Atlanticist media outlets that an African-American correspondent of CNN finally reported about the racism that was on display in the treatment of Ukrainian officials towards those who had complexions far duskier than their own. Alternate reality seems to have infected “global” i.e., Atlanticist media as much as it has officialdom in NATO capitals.
The initial reports were that sanctions were stopping Putin from using military means, then the refrain changed to his being bogged down and losing to the Ukrainian side, and after that to his regime being on the edge of collapse. Propagandists are churning out story after story on these lines, predicting a Russian collapse. Meanwhile, the world is increasingly at risk of facing economic pain on a level last encountered during the first year of the SARS2 pandemic, a situation caused less by the disease than by the WHO-recommended responses to it, none of which succeeded in even slowing down the spread of the virus.
Once the war becomes larger as Russia reacts to NATO’s so far non-kinetic warfare against the country, the rest of the world will be collateral damage. By setting off the fuse that has ignited a war that could spiral into World War III, the elected leaders of NATO are ensuring that an electorate that would become painfully aware of what their leaders have done to them in the process of getting into a conflict that was entirely avoidable, if only they had listened to their own experts. Meanwhile, in US, UK and EU media, a form of blood lust against Putin and Russia is being created among the public through the frenzy that has been caused by their statements and actions against Russia and Putin.
Stoltenberg stressed that Russia has signed a number of deals agreeing that nuclear war cannot be won and should not be fought…reports Asian Lite News
NATO’s chief said Tuesday that, despite Russia’s threats about nuclear weapons, the alliance sees no need to change its own nuclear weapons alert level.
The alliance’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg spoke following talks on European security with Polish President Andrzej Duda at an airbase in Lask, central Poland, where NATO’s Polish and US fighter jets F-15 and F-16 are based.
“We will always do what is needed to protect and defend our allies, but we don’t think there is any need now to change the alert levels of NATO’s nuclear forces,” Stoltenberg said.
Ukraine is not a member of NATO, and the 30-member military alliance is not intervening directly in the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine. But NATO members are supporting Ukraine with military equipment and humanitarian and financial aid, Stoltenberg said.
The Kremlin began an invasion of Ukraine last week and on Tuesday shelled the centre of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Russia has raised the spectre of nuclear war, reporting on Monday that its land, air and sea nuclear forces were on high alert following President Vladimir Putin’s weekend order. NATO itself has no nuclear weapons, but three of its members do — the United States, Britain and France.
“We strongly believe it’s reckless and irresponsible the way Russia is speaking about nuclear weapons,” Stoltenberg said, standing in one of the base’s hangars, which has been turned into a conference room with Polish and NATO flags and jets around it.
Stoltenberg stressed that Russia has signed a number of deals agreeing that nuclear war cannot be won and should not be fought.
He called on Russia to “stop the attacks and withdraw all its forces and engage in good faith in diplomatic efforts” to end the war.
Government delegations from Ukraine and Russia met for talks in southeastern Belarus on Monday, but the outcome was not immediately clear.
“This is a horrendous, horrific invasion of an innocent country and we see that civilians are killed. It’s a brutality that has to stop immediately,” Stoltenberg said.
The United States recently reinforced the eastern flank of NATO’s territory with some 5,000 additional troops deployed to Poland and Romania. Both NATO countries border Ukraine, which is not part of NATO. A number of French troops were travelling to Romania on Tuesday to further strengthen the region, Stoltenberg said.
The alliance is to discuss further reinforcement steps at its next summit in June in Madrid.
It is NATO’s responsibility to “ensure that we don’t see a development where a conflict in Ukraine spiralled out of control and becomes a full-fledged confrontation between NATO and Russia in Europe,” Stoltenberg said.
He said alliance commanders are insisting that they are “able to maintain deconfliction (contacts) with Russia,” he said.
From Lask, Stoltenberg flew to Tallin, Estonia, for talks on the security of the Baltic region, which borders Russia and its ally Belarus.
