NATO on Wednesday called Russia the biggest “direct threat” to the West’s security after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and agreed to plans to modernize Ukraine’s armed forces, saying it fully supported the “defense of Ukraine”. heroics of their country” by the Ukrainians.
In a summit dominated by the invasion and the geopolitical upheaval it caused, NATO also invited Sweden and Finland to the alliance and promised a sevenfold increase from 2023 in high-alert combat forces on its eastern flank against any future Russian attack.
In reaction, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia would respond in kind if NATO organizes infrastructure in Finland and Sweden after they join the US-led military alliance.
Putin said, according to Russian news agencies, he could not rule out tensions emerging in Moscow’s relations with Helsinki and Stockholm after they joined NATO.
US President Joe Biden announced further deployments of forces by land, sea and air across Europe, from Spain in the west to Romania and Poland on the border with Ukraine.
“President Putin’s war against Ukraine has shattered peace in Europe and created the biggest security crisis in Europe since World War II,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference. “NATO responded with strength and unity.”
As 30 NATO leaders gathered in Madrid, Russian forces intensified their attacks in Ukraine, with missiles and bombings in the southern Mykolaiv region, close to the front lines and the Black Sea.
The mayor of Mykolaiv city said a Russian missile killed at least five people in a residential building, and Moscow said its forces had hit what it called a training base for foreign mercenaries in the region.
The governor of eastern Luhansk province reported “fighting everywhere” in a battle around the city of Lysychansk, which Russian forces are trying to encircle as they gradually advance in a campaign to conquer the entire industrial Donbas region, in eastern Ukraine on behalf of separatist representatives. Donbas is made up of the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Alluding to the deterioration of relations with Russia since the invasion, a NATO statement called Russia the “most significant and direct threat to the security of allies”, after previously classifying it as a “strategic partner”.
NATO has issued a new Strategic Concept document, its first since 2010, which says that a “strong and independent Ukraine is vital to the stability of the Euro-Atlantic region”.
“We stand in full solidarity with the government and people of Ukraine in the heroic defense of their country,” the statement said.
Source: CNN Brasil
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