NATO is stepping up support for Ukraine following an urgent summit of world leaders on Thursday, including anti-tank systems, air defence systems and drones.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also said that alliance members would increase their preparedness to defend against biological, chemical, radiological and nuclear threats.
The following is a joint statement from NATO Heads of State and Government issued today.
“We will continue to take all necessary steps to protect and defend the security of our Allied populations and every inch of Allied territory. Our commitment to Article 5 of the Washington Treaty is iron-clad.
In response to Russia’s actions, we have activated NATO’s defence plans, deployed elements of the NATO Response Force, and placed 40,000 troops on our eastern flank, along with significant air and naval assets, under direct NATO command supported by Allies’ national deployments. We are also establishing four additional multinational battlegroups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. We are taking all measures and decisions to ensure the security and defence of all Allies across all domains and with a 360-degree approach. Our measures remain preventive, proportionate, and non-escalatory. We will now accelerate NATO’s transformation for a more dangerous strategic reality, including through the adoption of the next Strategic Concept in Madrid. In light of the gravest threat to Euro-Atlantic security in decades, we will also significantly strengthen our longer term deterrence and defence posture and will further develop the full range of ready forces and capabilities necessary to maintain credible deterrence and defence. These steps will be supported by enhanced exercises with an increased focus on collective defence and interoperability.
We are increasing the resilience of our societies and our infrastructure to counter Russia’s malign influence. We are enhancing our cyber capabilities and defences, providing support to each other in the event of cyber-attacks. We are ready to impose costs on those who harm us in cyberspace, and are increasing information exchange and situational awareness, enhancing civil preparedness, and strengthening our ability to respond to disinformation. We will also enhance our preparedness and readiness for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats. We will take further decisions when we meet in Madrid.
The steps we are taking to ensure the security of our Alliance and of the Euro-Atlantic area will require adequate resourcing. Allies are substantially increasing their defence expenditures. Today, we have decided to accelerate our efforts to fulfil our commitment to the Defence Investment Pledge in its entirety. In line with our commitment in Article 3 of the Washington Treaty, we will further strengthen our individual and collective capacity to resist all forms of attack. At our meeting in Madrid, we will submit additional plans on how to meet the Pledge.
Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine represents a fundamental challenge to the values and norms that have brought security and prosperity to all on the European continent. President Putin’s choice to attack Ukraine is a strategic mistake, with grave consequences also for Russia and the Russian people. We remain united and resolute in our determination to oppose Russia’s aggression, aid the government and the people of Ukraine, and defend the security of all Allies.”
Clear-eyed, studied, prepared, and supported. A man ready to meet his moment.
Words, words and more useless words. We are heading for Spring in Europe. Russia’s ground forces are a joke. It’s air power is not much better (as pointed out from captured downed aircrew). Now is the time for NATO/the West to cross the border into Ukraine, and stop this wholesale murder of innocent people! After shoring up Ukraine, then TELL Russia to get out of Ukraine, and the Crimea! Anyone wishing to to leave Ukraine for Russia may do so asap. All Russian forces are to lay down their arms, leave their vehicles, and walk back to Russia with their… Read more »
Since this war started, I have wanted a NATO guaranteed safe haven around Lviv. These are old Polish/Slovakian lands.
This is about more than one town.
Agree with everything apart from crossing into Russia. That will illicit a nuclear response & is unecessary. How many lives, homes & refugees would’ve been save had we intervened sooner? Putin is the worse possible advertisement for being a Russian satallite. A neo-Imperial Russian empire is a mad dream of Putins ego. Let’s hope it causes Xi & the PRC to think again.
Exactly. My fear is however, if the west does not take steps such as these to stop Putin, China could invade Taiwan by Christmas.
The west is nicely distracted now. Let’s hope Xi doesn’t get the impression the way to deal with a highly motivated, well equipped & stubborn Taiwan is to bombard it into submission rather than expend huge amounts of personell & material invading. Mind you, PRC would lose most of its most lucrative trade with the west in the process.
Pity we didn’t effectively face down Putin before he invaded.
The West should have suggested a peacekeeping force in Ukraine after 2014. Comprised of NATO troops it would have meant that Putin would have faced conflict with NATO simply by crossing the border.
Not sure I see the linkage. The US can deter China from invading Taiwan irrespective of any engagement in Ukraine.
But they cant. The west is tired, the west is weak. Russia Ukraine was the ‘litmus test. Russia invaded (after giving months of notice) the west did nothing.
Taiwan is not a member of SEATO, there is your ‘linkage’. There is as much chance of the US or anyone else for that matter putting boots on the ground to help defend Taiwan, as there is of NATO doing what it should do in Ukraine.
What the war in Ukraine is showing is that a vastly larger military cannot assume it will roll over a neighbour and conquer it within a few days and with few losses. China will be paying attention to the mauling Russia is receiving. Taiwan is far better armed than Ukraine and the PLA would have to effect amphibious and airborne landings, both guaranteed to result in high losses. The west is doing all it can short of initiating a war between 2 nuclear powers. The constant flow of munitions is allowing the Ukrainians to demolish slowly the Russian military. Economic… Read more »
I am not sure the US is tired and weak – maybe Joe Biden is! But they have awesome military and naval power in the Far East and very close ties including military with Taiwan. Would the US stand by with power in the region and let China take Taiwan? Surely the US regional presence is a strong deterrent to China? Even if the US did step aside, what could we in the UK do about it if the US did nothing? Back to Ukraine – very different as it is in our backyard. I am not sure the west… Read more »
completely agree invade Russia
Finnish putin off
Words? The article describes solid actions by NATO’s SG and NATO nations.
I think US and UK should have left training teams in Ukraine to deter Putin from attacking – it would have fitted with the 1994 Budapest Memorandum too, with a view to rienforcing them as necessary. Water under the bridge though.
Your narrative ignores the possibility of Russia launching WMDs against Ukrainian or NATO targets, including tactical nuclear weapons aka WW3.
The article is words words garbage and words. Tell the dead about ‘solid actions’. How the hell were the UK going to leave training teams in Ukraine, when to do so was committing NATO forces to a non alliance combat zone? My narrative? Your narrative is meaningless. Go explain your narrative to the dead, to the obliterated cities, and the millions of displaced human beings! Talk is free. cheap and useless for those not undergoing war, death and displacement. So I ignore possibilities of… Freedom does not come cheap. If it takes an escalation to finish Putin, so be it,… Read more »
Right so to finish Putin you’re happy to devastate the planet with a nuclear war. Thankfully the only thing you have control of is your keyboard. Putin is finished, he’s a dead man walking. His war to return Ukraine as a satellite state has failed. The world has seen how ineffectual and badly organised his military forces are. And the economic warfare being waged against Russia guarantees it will not just face a recession but a prolonged depression. No regime will survive all that, and it’s better he’s removed by internal rather than external regime change. Might take longer than… Read more »
1/ There will be no planetary devastation. 2/ Your trashy words are meaningless. 3/ Putin is in no way finished as leader of Russia. You are either monumentally naïve, or simply have no idea what you are typing about. 4/ Putin, his cronies, oligarch’s and whoever, have had 8 years to prepare for this. (as attested to by one of the London based ‘garks’ this week) 5/ THOSE people are not effected by economic sanctions. THEY are the ones you need to hit, but cannot. 6/ Regime change in Russia??? Really? You clearly know nothing about the eastern European mindset… Read more »
“A little learning is a dangerous thing”… combine that with your abundant stupidity and arrogance and we get the pompous fool we all see here 🤷🏻♂️
As I thought… your poor pathetic feelings have been hurt, so you turn to using drivel. Take your snide comments, and go talk to the dead!
Useless whinging creature.
Whitworth
Tom, the article was about solid actions – read it again. The fact that those solid actions did not stop Putin is a tragedy. I agree that leaving US/UK training teams in Ukraine would have been highly controversial but plenty of other people are suggesting putting NATO troops into Ukraine, albeit belatedly and at scale, not early and small-scale, as a tripwire. But they would have been a possible deterrent to Putin precisely because they were NATO troops. Anyway forget my clearly terrible idea – yours is to have a nuclear war with Russia! You dismiss my reference to the… Read more »
Words, talk, chat, more rhetoric. Again, tell it to the dead!
So I “dismiss my reference to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. Are you aware of it? It allows UK and US to operate outside NATO protocols”.
I do not recall doing anything of the sort thank you kindly! Reality check time… Putin ordered the murder of 2 human beings in Salisbury, by means of the deadly poison Novichok, knowing full well the ‘fallout’ of this chemical weapon would impact others.
So… just to remind me, where, how and why would a 28 year old ‘treaty’, stop an animal like Putin???
Tom, You have a problem with words and treaties – not sure why – they lead to action – or should do. We embarked on WW1 and WW2 due to Treaty obligations – the first stopped the Kaiser and the second stopped Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini.
If we (US/UK) considered the Budapest Memorandum to be akin to a Treaty at least in a moral if not a legal sense, then we (US/UK) would have dealt with Putin to maintain Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Don’t ask me how – I would just give my speculation – and you don’t like my words!
Hi Graham I have no problem with you nor your words. I merely have a different opinion. I have no particular problem with treaties, however when dealing with someone like Herr Putin, we are basically dealing with a playground bully of the worst kind. The bully who does’nt give a fig about treaties, someone who has no moral compass, and will stoop to any level to get what he wants. In reality, the rest of the world is partially to blame for this, by turning a blind eye Putin’s actions in Syria, the UK and the Crimea. When considering the… Read more »
My point about treaties is not concern that the bully ignores them, but that the good guys should take action (and haven’t) on a breach by the bully. That is to say the US and the UK should have felt an obligation to force Putin to desist from invasion plans and preparation and to take action if that message was not complied with.
In your last sentence you agree with me – good! It is the question I have been asking in this forum.
My big concern is whether it would have to be Putin making that call. During the Cold War, Soviet field commanders could order the use of tactical nukes without seeking permission from the Politburo.
I wonder who is more sane – Russian tactical commanders or Putin himself?
I think the Russian military would be in serious trouble if they were less sane than Putin. Putin is clearly suffering from the echo-chamber of yes men that all autocrats end up inhabiting, completely out of touch with ordinary people and dissenting opinions. His fear of coronavirus and his self-inflicted isolation during the pandemic has only exacerbated this and fuelled his paranoia and messianic complex. Just as in his youth he fantasised of himself as the character in a famous soviet spy movie – I forget the name now – so he now sees himself as a heroic leader restoring… Read more »
All good points. I think the reason he fears coronavirus is that he could be ousted (or poisoned) when laid low.
Great on paper, but…
How would you stop Putin using Chemical weapons or instant sunshine?
It is pointless for NATO move into Ukraine if the Russians use the advance as an excuse to irradiate the rest of the country like the area around Chernobyl.
Interesting question, with lots of ponderable answers however, if we had have supported Ukraine with force before now, the ‘ponderable question would not occur, would it! Its too late now anyway. Putin has gained most of the ground he wanted, producing a buffer state between Russia and his newly acquired East Ukraine. Well done to all who sat on their hands, talked ****, were accessories to murder, rape any every other atrocity carried out by Russian troops. In the meantime, the new West Ukraine can join NATO, and do as it pleases, as Russia has now gained most of the… Read more »
But again, the same question comes back… How would you stop Russia without starting WW3? NATO could not have moved into Ukraine at anytime without triggering a massive response from Russia and its allies. Your ”use of force” would have lead to more deaths in more countries by this time. All I can see from what you suggest is death on a bigger scale than what we are seeing… Is that really the answer? A good example of how NATOs ”inaction” is saving lives is the fact that certain Russian allies are refusing to join in by sending troops. If… Read more »
Enter Ukraine, and deal with Russia once and for all, including Chemical, Biological or Nuclear threats!
Was that too hard to fathom? So NATO’s Inaction is saving lives????? You know what, people like you really take the biscuit! Tell the Ukrainian dead, the dying, the raped, the mutilated and the murdered! Your words are weak, feeble and meaningless!
Lucky you, sitting at a keyboard hundreds of miles away, spouting shite!
Lucky me, yep correct… Lucky me, that arm chair general like you are not in charge.
Again the same question, oh wise one… How would you deal with PUTINs intercontinental nuclear weapons that will not result in the death of tens of millions?
You sit behind a keyboard telling everyone what we we know, but do not have a clue how your ideas will result in tens of millions of deaths…
But of course, it is easy for you to pass out orders and demands, because you will not to the one on the ground carrying them out!
I wonder which formations and nations will make up these BGs? Short term or long term commitments?
Really!!. We are sending NBC kit to Ukraine. Would that be fifty, hundreds, a thousand or two million. Well it’s not he latter as we don’t have that many. Once again a defensive response, I could have said gutless but won’t. One side keeps threatening nuclear, chemical or a biological response to any activity from the West. While they slaughter civilians and apparently now are forcing them back to Russia. As I have said for the past month it’s time to consider the option of a first strike. It’s a 15-20 minute timeline. Could Russian Command and Control get it… Read more »
We are good at making tea. Could we send Putin a cup of tea such as Mr Litvinenko had?
Putin is the key to this, clearly. As long as he is President and is emboldened by weak western military response, he will do this again.