NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg had a conversation with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in connection with massive rocket attacks on Ukrainian cities on the morning of October 10.
“Speaked to Foreign Minister Kuleba and condemned Russia’s horrendous and indiscriminate attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. NATO will continue to support the courageous Ukrainian people in fighting the Kremlin’s aggression for as long as it takes,” Stoltenberg tweeted.
civilian infrastructure, NATO, Russian attacks, SECRETARY GENERAL
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says that Russia is not withdrawing troops, as recently announced, but only moving them in an attempt to regroup and strengthen the offensive in Donbas region.
“We have heard the recent statements that Russia will scale down military operations around Kyiv and in northern Ukraine. But Russia has repeatedly lied about its intentions. So we can only judge Russia on its actions, not on its words. According to our intelligence, Russian units are not withdrawing, but repositioning. Russia is trying to regroup, resupply and reinforce its offensive in Donbas region,” he said a press conference in Brussels on Thursday.
Stoltenberg also said that at the same time, Russia continues to put pressure on Kyiv and other cities. “So we can expect additional offensive actions, bringing even more suffering, ” the Secretary General said.
In this regard, he again called on Russia “to end this senseless war.
Withdraw all its troops.
And engage in talks in good faith. ”
NATO, REPOSITIONING, RUSSIAN UNITS, SECRETARY GENERAL, WITHDRAWING
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking at a meeting of leaders of states of the Joint Expeditionary Force, said that Ukraine had heard that it would not join NATO member states, the Ukrainian people are beginning to understand this and rely on themselves.
“It is clear that Ukraine is not a member of NATO. We understand this. We are adequate people. For years we have heard about supposedly open doors, but we have already heard that we cannot enter there. And this is true, and we must admit it. I am glad that our people are beginning to understand this and rely on themselves and our partners who help us,” the president said.
He also added that Ukraine currently does not claim to activate Article 5 of the NATO Treaty.
According to the head of state, the Russian invasion of Ukraine destroyed absolutely everything on which security in the region rested.
“I am sure that international security as well. The weight of the organization that we all hoped for, the strength of international conventions have been called into question. And the most powerful alliance in the world, NATO, an alliance that seems [itself], or some of its members, are hypnotized by Russian aggression. We hear now a lot of opinions on the theme of the third world war. That it can start if NATO closes the sky over Ukraine for Russian missiles and aircraft,” Zelensky said, adding that the bombing and destruction of peaceful Ukrainian cities due to the uncovered sky are already taking place.
An extraordinary meeting of the North Atlantic Council at the level of defense ministers will be held on March 16.
According to NATO headquarters on Tuesday, the meeting will be chaired by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
The agenda has not been announced, however, based on the war waged by Russia against Ukraine, the heads of the defense departments of the member countries of the alliance will discuss the security situation in the light of recent events. The discussion will take place via teleconference.
This will be the fifth extraordinary meeting of the North Atlantic Council this year, convened due to Russian aggression against Ukraine: on March 4, a meeting of the Council at the level of foreign ministers was held, in which Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba took part via video link. Prior to that, on February 25, on the second day of the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, the leaders of states and governments gathered for an extraordinary meeting. A few days earlier, on February 22, an extraordinary meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Commission was held at the headquarters, on February 16-17, a meeting of the North Atlantic Council at the level of defense ministers with the virtual participation of the head of the Ukrainian defense department Oleksiy Reznikov, and on January 7 – an extraordinary meeting of foreign ministers.
The NATO leadership has decided to transfer the personnel of its Ukrainian mission to Lviv and Brussels in connection with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Oksana Musiyenko, press officer of the NATO Information and Documentation Centre, told Suspilne.
“NATO and allied countries are monitoring and assessing the situation very closely and continue to take all necessary measures. The safety of our personnel is a top priority, so the personnel have been transferred to Lviv and Brussels,” Musiyenko said.
At the same time, she noted that NATO offices in Ukraine continue to work.
NATO is putting its armed forces on alert and sending additional ships and fighter jets to Eastern Europe in connection with the build-up of Russian military forces near Ukraine. “NATO Allies are putting forces on standby and sending additional ships and fighter jets to NATO deployments in eastern Europe, reinforcing Allied deterrence and defence as Russia continues its military build-up in and around Ukraine,” a statement published on the NATO website reads.The communiqué says that in the past days, a number of Allies have made announcements regarding current or upcoming deployments. Thus, according to the statement, Denmark is sending a frigate to the Baltic Sea and is set to deploy four F-16 fighter jets to Lithuania in support of NATO’s long-standing air-policing mission in the region. Spain is sending ships to join NATO naval forces and is considering sending fighter jets to Bulgaria.In addition, France has expressed its readiness to send troops to Romania under NATO command.The United States has also made clear that it is considering increasing its military presence in the eastern part of the Alliance.NATO is also expecting that the Netherlands will send two F-35 fighter aircraft to Bulgaria from April to support NATO’s air-policing activities in the region, and will put a ship and land-based units on standby for NATO’s Response Force.”There were no NATO forces in the eastern part of the Alliance before 2014,” NATO says.
