On Wednesday, NATO labeled Russia as the biggest “immediate threat” to Western security after the invasion of Ukraine and agreed to plans to modernize Kyiv’s beleaguered forces, saying it was fully behind the “heroic defense of their country”.
At a summit dominated by the invasion and the geopolitical upheaval it has caused, NATO also invited Sweden and Finland to join the alliance and pledged a sevenfold increase in combat troops along the eastern flank against any attack from 2023. future Russian attack.
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US President Joe Biden announced the increased deployment of land, naval, and air forces across Europe, from Spain in the West to Romania and Poland bordering Ukraine, including a permanent army headquarters and associated battalion in Poland – the first full-time deployment of the US on the eastern edge of NATO. “President (Vladimir) Putin’s war against Ukraine has disrupted peace in Europe and has caused Europe’s worst security crisis since World War II,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at a news conference. “NATO has responded with strength and unity,” he said. While NATO’s 30 national leaders met in Madrid, Russian forces intensified attacks in Ukraine, including rocket attacks and shelling of the southern Mykolaiv region, close to the front lines and the Black Sea.
On Wednesday, the top US intelligence officer said that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wants to conquer most of Ukraine. Still, his forces have been so degraded by fighting that they can only make incremental gains soon.
National Intelligence Director Avril Haines, who outlined US intelligence’s current assessment of the more than four-month-long war, said US intelligence agencies agree it will continue “for an extended period.” The picture remains quite bleak, and Russia’s attitude towards the West is hardening,” Ms. Haines told a Commerce Ministry conference. The mayor of Mykolaiv said a Russian missile had killed at least five people in a residential building there. , Moscow said its troops had hit a so-called training base for foreign mercenaries in the region. The governor of the eastern province of Luhansk reported “fighting everywhere” in a battle around the hill town of Lysychansk, which Russian troops are trying to encircle as they advance—Progressively advancing in a campaign to capture the entire industrialized eastern Donbas region of Ukraine on behalf of separatist proxies.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated to NATO leaders that KKyivneeded more weapons and money, and faster, to erode Russia’s vast lead in artillery and missile firepower, and warned that the Kremlin’s ambitions did not stop with Ukraine.READ MORE
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba praised NATO’s “clear stance” on Russia and said the summit’s outcome proved “it can make difficult but vital decisions”. He added: “An equally strong and active position towards Ukraine will help to protect Euro-Atlantic security and stability.” Kyiv has expressed concern that the West has been slow to provide more than moral support against an invasion that has destroyed cities, killed thousands, and displaced millions. Russia says it is conducting a “special military operation” in Ukraine to rid it of dangerous nationalists. Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of an unprovoked, imperialist land grab.
A NATO communiqué called Russia the “most significant and immediate threat to the security of the Allies”, a nod to the abrupt deterioration in relations with Russia – previously classified as a “strategic partner” – since the invasion.
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NATO has issued a new Strategic Concept document, the first since 2010, stating that a “highly independent Ukraine is vital for the stability of the Euro-Atlantic area”. To that end, NATO has agreed on a long-term financial and military aid package for the modernization of Ukraine’s largely Soviet-era military. “We are in full solidarity with the government and the people of Ukraine in the heroic defense of their country,” the statement said. The US-led alliance said it would also deploy more “robust forces on the ground” on the eastern flank, scaling up from existing battlegroups to brigade-sized units.
Mr . Stoltenberg said NATO had agreed to put 300,000 troops on high alert from 2023, up from 40,000 now, under a new force model to protect an area stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea.
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Zelenskyy said in a video link to the summit that Ukraine needed $5 billion a month for its defense and protection. “This is not a war that Russia is waging against Ukraine alone. This is a war for the right to dictate the terms in Europe — for what the future world order will look like,” he said. NATO’s invitation to Sweden and Finland to join the alliance marks one of the most mmeaningfulshifts in European security in decades as Helsinki and Stockholm drop a tradition of neutrality in response to the Russian invasion. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said NATO enlargement is “destabilizing” and will not improve the security of its members.
Mr. Zelenskyy this week told Mr. Biden and other G7 leaders that he wants the war to be over before the end of the year.
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But Ms. Haines’ comments suggested that the billions of dollars in modern weapons supplied to Mr. Zelenskyy’s forces by the United States and other countries will not allow them to turn the tide against Russia any time soon. She said Putin remains determined to overrun most of Ukraine, even as Ukrainian forces repulsed Russia’s attempt to take the capital KKyivin Fin ebruary, forcing Moscow to reduce its target of destroying the whole of Ukraine. eastern Donbas region. Political goals that we had before, which is that he wants to take most of Ukraine,” said Ms. Haines. However, Russia’s armed forces have been so degraded by more than four months of fighting that they are unlikely to achieve Putin’s goal any time soon, Ms. Haines said in her first public assessment of the war since May. “We see a discrepancy between Putin’s short-term military objectives in this area and the capacity of his army, a kind of discrepancy between his ambitions and what the army can achieve,” she said.
Putin’s priority now, she said, is to make a profit in the Donbas region and the collapsing Ukrainian troops, a development that Russia says will “slump resistance from within”.
