Stoltenberg reaffirms his support for Kiev but recalls that he is not a member of the Alliance, while Boris Johnson offers a large military deployment in Eastern Europe
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg ruled out Sunday that the Atlantic Alliance would send troops to Ukraine on the ground if Russia tries to invade the country. The head of the organization was exhaustive in justifying this decision: “Ukraine is not a NATO ally.” And he was also clear in defining that the role of the allies is to support this country and dissuade the Kremlin from using force against Kiev. But “not” there will be a single Alliance soldier who steps on Ukrainian soil to fight the Russians.
Stoltenberg’s words do not reveal anything new, although there have been political leaders who have dedicated themselves to playing with the meaning of the term ‘support’ and its scope. However, NATO’s rules of engagement indicate that an attack on an ally “will trigger a response from the entire Alliance”, but this criterion is clearly not adjusted to the case of the former Soviet republic. Stontelberg made this clarification in an interview with a television channel, during which he stated that he prefers the diplomatic route, although he is concerned about the accumulation of Russian soldiers on the Ukrainian border and the “aggressive rhetoric” of the Kremlin.
His remarks come just one day after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson offered NATO the largest military deployment of an allied country since the start of the crisis in the east. In a surprising statement issued by his cabinet on Saturday night, the ‘premier’ argued that his commitment responds to the increase in “Russian hostility” and said that, apart from weapons, planes and ships, he is willing to double the 1,150 military that it now has distributed in Eastern Europe – a hundred of them in Ukraine itself, in training work since 2015 – and send “defensive weapons” to Estonia.
Some media believe that the sudden way in which the Prime Minister has turned to the Ukrainian crisis may have much to do with his own domestic crisis and an attempt to divert attention from the scandal of banned parties in Downing Street. Although Johnson, logically, sees other objectives. “This set of measures will send a clear message to the Kremlin that we will not tolerate their destabilizing activity and that we will always stand by our NATO allies,” he said in the statement.
The prime minister wants to have the deployment ready this week, although he has not had a response from NATO, which has recently reinforced its positions around Ukraine and has just received a letter from the Kremlin asking him to define in writing his intentions to strengthen his influence in the east. Nor have there been comments from the rest of the allies or from the EU, much less ardent in terms of warfare and more concerned about any movement that translates into greater military conflict. Johnson will send a delegation to NATO headquarters in Brussels this morning to communicate his offer in detail. And he himself is preparing to travel to Ukraine and telephone Vladimir Putin to warn him of the “bloodshed” that an occupation of the neighboring country would mean.
Sanctions in ‘Londongrad’
After the intense activity carried out by Downing Street this weekend – while the police investigation into ‘partygate’ continues – the Foreign Ministry will also announce tougher sanctions against Moscow today. The holder of the portfolio, Liz Truss, spoke on the matter yesterday and does not rule out even seizing assets from the Russian oligarchs on British soil and more specifically in their capital; that territory that some media ironically call ‘Londongrad’ and that offers some idea of the difficulty that punishing it would entail.
While Downing Street tries to position itself in the Ukrainian crisis, in Germany it takes its toll on the new chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who is blamed for an alleged closeness of his party to Russia. The perception has been accentuated after the Foreign Ministry has refused to send reinforcement weapons to Ukraine and promised to deploy 5,000 soldiers in the event of a confrontation, which has been considered by the Ukrainian government as a “drop in the ocean”.
According to ‘Der Spiegel’, the German Embassy in Washington has also warned that the US is beginning to see Germany as a “weak” partner, weighed down in part by its high energy dependence on Russia. The SDP will meet today to discuss possible ambivalence and send an image of firmness.
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