NATO unites in Brussels

Russia’s war in Ukraine poses “the gravest threat to Euro-Atlantic security in decades,” Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary general, warned today as he announced that the Alliance is placing 40,000 extra troops along its eastern flank to bolster Europe’s defences.

NATO is establishing four new battlegroups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, as well as strengthening its cyber defences, Stoltenberg confirmed. 

His surprising announcement came during a crucial day of diplomacy. World leaders, including Boris Johnson and Joe Biden, gathered in Brussels today for back-to-back summits: a NATO emergency summit followed by a gathering of G7 and EU leaders. 

Russia’s brutal offensive has given NATO a renewed sense of purpose.  Stoltenberg’s term was extended by another year today in recognition of his success in steering the Western defensive alliance through turbulent times. This will make him the second-longest serving NATO chief. 

But aside from strengthening its own defences, what more can NATO’s 30 presidents and prime ministers do to actually help Ukraine? 

There are still no signs that NATO will agree to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, despite Volodymyr Zelensky urging leaders once again today “to help shield our sky” from Russian strikes.

However, Polish President Andrzej Duda has put forward the idea of some kind of “peacekeeping mission” during the talks as a way to protect Ukraine more effectively.  

Johnson, who said this morning that Putin has crossed a “threshold of barbarism”, vowed to use the meetings to urge fellow leaders to keep up military support for Kyiv. This morning, Number 10 pledged a further 6,000 defensive missiles and £25 million for Ukraine’s armed forces. 

The Prime Minister has also suggested that sanctioning Moscow’s gold reserves could “shorten the slaughter” in Ukraine. Russia currently has the fifth-largest gold reserves in the world, valued at more than £100 billion.

Stoltenberg has also called on China “to refrain from any action that helps Russia circumvent sanctions.” 

Today marks one month since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Yet the Russian military advance seems to have stalled. Indeed, the latest intelligence reports indicate that Ukrainian counter-attacks have forced demoralised Russian troops around Kyiv into a defensive position. Ukrainian troops also appear to have retaken two cities – Makariv and Moschun – on the outskirts of the capital.

NATO estimates that Moscow has now lost as much as a fifth of its combat forces in the space of just four weeks. Whether this alarming scale of loss will encourage Putin to engage with peace talks is the big unknown.  

Western leaders certainly aren’t banking on it. The great fear is that growing desperation might tip the Kremlin to resort to even more brutal tactics prompting Stoltenberg to warn that if Putin employs chemical weapons, this “will totally change the nature of the conflict”. As the NATO chief pointed out, the spread of contamination from use of chemical weapons could affect those outside of Ukraine, forcing NATO into a direct conflict with Russia. 

NATO leaders say they are ready. In a joint statement today, they also promised that: “We will enhance our preparedness and readiness for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats.” Speaking at a press conference tonight after the emergency meetings of NATO and the G7 in Brussels, Boris Johnson said: “The message to President Putin is this: Ukraine is not alone. We stand with the people of Kyiv, of Mariupol, of Lviv and of Donetsk and, as President Zelensky has said himself, the people of Ukraine will prevail and Putin must fail, and he will.”