They say it’s not their war. Neither the United States nor NATO plans to deploy soldiers to Ukraine, a country that does not belong to the Atlantic Alliance. This was confirmed several times this Wednesday by the White House spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, and confirmed this Thursday by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who has acknowledged that the Atlantic Alliance’s defensive alert plans have been activated.
What NATO will do is continue to strengthen its eastern flank, with a greater presence in the countries close to Ukraine and Russia, such as the Baltic countries, as well as Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and the Black Sea.
Stoltenberg has also called on Russia to withdraw its forces from Ukraine and to choose “the path of diplomacy.” He has also announced that this Friday a summit of NATO leaders will be held, together with Sweden and Finland, to determine future actions after several allies have stated that they feel threatened.
Stoltenberg, who has defined the invasion as a “flagrant violation” of international law and an “act of aggression”, has insisted in an appearance on Thursday that they support “the sovereignty of Ukraine and its right to self-determination”. He has also assured that Russia “is using force to try to rewrite history” and deny Ukraine its “independent path”.
“Despite all his lies,” Stoltenberg has said. “Russian leaders are responsible for all the loss of life. It is an attack on a peaceful country and a threat to European security. Russia wants to rewrite history and harm Ukraine’s freedom to create its own destiny.”
Stoltenberg has announced: “We are preparing defensive measures before a possible deployment if necessary. In response to this movement by Russia we have mobilized all our forces and also our allies. We have a dozen fighters on alert to protect our bases and 120 ships mobilized … Article 5 of our Defense Charter is up and running. We will do what is necessary to protect our members. Russia must pay a high cost for its actions.”
The NATO secretary general has acknowledged that the presence in the area is being reinforced “with soldiers, planes, ships, and an attack against an ally will be defended.” But Ukraine is not in NATO, so NATO has no obligation to respond militarily to Russia. “This invasion is not a surprise”, Stoltenberg said: “Our intelligence services have kept us informed, we have asked the Kremlin to go down the path of negotiation, but it has decided to invade Ukraine despite everything. And it is not the first time. That is why we have started to reinforce our presence in our eastern part, and there will be more in the coming weeks, and we have activated the NATO defense plan that empowers the military command to mobilize troops where necessary”.
“Tomorrow we are going to have a summit”, Stoltenberg said, “to discuss how this is going to affect us in our future relationship with Russia, against a regime that threatens our values with force. This will have long-term effects on our relations with Moscow, we are in a very different era after today’s invasion.”
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