NATO ministers discuss boosting Ukraine — and avoiding a wider war

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NATO ministers discuss boosting Ukraine — and avoiding a wider war
By: Liz Sly and Emily Rauhala - The Washington Post News - 03-16-22
Re: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...ne-russia-war/

NATO defense ministers gathered in Brussels on Wednesday ahead of a summit next week to discuss ways of helping Ukraine and deterring Russian aggression without getting drawn into a wider conflict.

Also attending the gathering are the defense ministers of non-NATO countries Finland, Sweden, Georgia and Ukraine as well as a representative of the European Union, a reminder that Russia’s assault on Ukraine has served to reinvigorate and rally Western support for the nearly 73-year old alliance.

Over the past two months, the 30-member alliance has sent thousands of extra troops to its eastern flank and activated NATO’s Response Force for the first time. Its members have also sent tons of ammunition and weaponry into Ukraine.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg noted Wednesday as he arrived at the meeting that there are hundreds of thousands of forces on heightened alert across the alliance, including 100,000 U.S. troops in Europe and about 40,000 troops under direct NATO command, mostly in the eastern part of the alliance.

“NATO has a responsibility to ensure that this crisis does not escalate beyond Ukraine,” he said.

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U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin emphasized the United States’ “ironclad” commitment to NATO’s Article 5, which requires members to go to the defense of any member that comes under attack.

The United States is expected to press allies to help expand the arsenal of weapons available to Ukrainian forces after being criticized for scuttling Poland’s attempts to transfer MiG-29 fighter planes to Ukraine. U.S. officials say they are particularly keen to procure the transfer of more sophisticated air defenses, such as the Russian-made S-300 system, which several NATO countries possess in their arsenals.

The NATO ministers will also discuss concrete measures to reinforce allies’ security for the longer term. That could include deploying “substantially more forces in the eastern part of the alliance,” Stoltenberg noted on Tuesday in remarks ahead of the meeting, as well as increased air and naval deployments and strengthened air and missile defense systems.

That will require major increases in defense spending by allied countries, he stressed — something the United States has been demanding for years and which now appears more likely in light of the new threat posed by Russia.

But a big focus also will be to ensure that NATO doesn’t get drawn into the Ukraine war.

NATO and U.S. officials have repeatedly stressed that NATO is a defensive alliance, that it is not at war with Russia, and that it will not fight in Ukraine. They have also vowed to defend “every inch” of NATO territory. Russia’s missile attack Sunday on a Ukrainian training facility, just miles from the border of NATO member Poland, illustrated the risk that a misfire in Ukraine could force NATO to react.

“The risk of incidents if there are hostile actions at the border is really high,” said Stefano Stefanini, Italy’s former ambassador to NATO. “If there was a misfire, NATO could be at war.”

Douglas Lute, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and former U.S. ambassador to NATO, said the presence of NATO forces is partly about assuring allies, partly about deterring Russia.

“These troops are not moving to Portugal in the west, they are going to states on NATO’s eastern flank to assure allies that the words of the NATO treaty actually mean something, that when these allies feel threatened, NATO’s got their back,” he said.

“This is also a message across the border to Russia that NATO means what they’ve said: NATO would defend every inch of NATO territory,” he continued. “The brightest red line in Europe today is the red line that demarcates NATO’s borders.”

On Sunday, Russia came within 15 miles of that line, raining missiles down on a military training facility in western Ukraine, near the Polish border. The attack killed at least 35 people and injured more than 100, according to Ukrainian officials. NATO troops had in the recent past trained Ukrainian forces at the facility, known as the International Peacekeeping and Security Center, but NATO officials said that no alliance forces were present at the time of the attack.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said the site was being used to house foreign fighters and a storage base for weapons and equipment being sent to Ukraine by “foreign countries.” A day earlier, the Kremlin warned that it viewed Western weapons shipments as “legitimate targets.”

On Monday, a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon, said the strike did not disrupt shipments of Western military aid.

Rachel Rizzo, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center, said the strike was more of a warning than a direct test of NATO’s commitment to Article 5. The irony, she said, is that Russian President Vladimir Putin used the pretext of wanting fewer NATO troops to wage war in Ukraine but will end up with the opposite.

“If he wanted fewer troops, well, all he is going to get is NATO troops,” she said.

Note: About these two writer(s):

1. Liz Sly is The Washington Post’s Beirut bureau chief, covering Lebanon, Syria and the wider region. She has spent more than 17 years covering the Middle East, including the first and second Iraq wars. Other postings include Washington, Africa, China, Afghanistan and Italy.

2. Emily Rauhala writes about foreign affairs for The Washington Post. She spent a decade as an editor and correspondent in Asia, first for Time magazine and later, from 2015 to 2018, as China correspondent in Beijing for The Post. In 2017, she shared an Overseas Press Club award for a series about the Internet in China.
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Personal note:
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NATO is relearning the reason for their Pack! If NATO fails in its obligations then
the system is broken - and many will suffer from their neglect. It seems at time's
- that NATO isn't qualifed - it's only because of their preparations and their lack of
a crisis format - or that they didn't want to spend monies - on defensive materials.
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In order for NATO to lead - it suffer's from poor responses to the onging actions.
Is it because of the cost? But when this happens to them - many innocent people
who depended on them to prevent their suffering - will be slaughtered. Because of
their countries lack of preparations - and indiligence - as to their agreement's
under NATO rules & preparational guidelines for such an event.
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To maintain a World Order requires that each NATO member(s) - must remember that
they could be the next victim of the aggressors. To loose the meaning of this concept;
will result in more warring to the point where they too could be eliminated/terminated
- with little hope of any future existence.
-
Sorry to say - but they have nobody to blame but themselves. And - if NATO doesn't
back them up - then what good is NATO?
-