Speaking to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Sunday about the military alliance’s response to Russia’s deadly and unprovoked war against Ukraine, NBC News anchor Chuck Todd asked NATO chief “how long” they would “stand by and watch” Russian attacks on civilians. residents.
President Joe Biden is scheduled to travel to Europe this week to attend a series of emergency summits over the month-long war in Ukraine, where world leaders could announce a new round of punitive measures against Russia. At the same time, while Russia is increasingly targeting Ukrainian civilians, NATO has removed some of the points that Ukraine wants, in particular the no-fly zone, for now to avoid a direct confrontation with Russia.
With Turkey now trying to mediate peace talks between Kiev and Moscow as the war enters its fourth week, Stoltenberg has not expressed much optimism that a diplomatic solution is close to being reached.
“So, first of all, we must remember that this is President Putin’s war, and he can end it now. And this is what all NATO allies are calling on Russia to do. Then, of course, we welcome all efforts to find a peaceful solution through negotiations,” he said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “I visited Turkey a few days ago, met with President Erdogan, and Turkey is making a real effort to try and facilitate support for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. But it is still too early to say whether they or the talks can lead to any concrete result.”
Elsewhere on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that while he was “ready for talks” with Putin, he warned that it “would mean a third world war” if the peace talks failed. In addition, Zelensky said that Ukraine’s sovereignty cannot be discussed and that if Ukraine “were a member of NATO, the war would not start.” (However, Zelenskiy hinted as recently as last week that he would soon abandon Ukraine’s ambitions to join NATO.)
Back at Meet the Press, Todd asked Stoltenberg if he would offer more help to Ukraine as Russia intensifies its attacks against the country’s population.
“Mr. Secretary General, we are seeing an increase in the number of attacks against civilians in Ukraine,” the moderator said. “How long can NATO stand by and watch Russia target civilians without finding a way to help more when it comes to Ukrainian resistance?”
“NATO allies are stepping up their support for Ukraine, in part by providing military assistance, humanitarian aid and billions of dollars of financial assistance to Ukraine,” Stoltenberg replied. “And then, of course, we imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia to ensure that President Putin pays a high price for this completely unjustified, senseless war against an independent sovereign state, Ukraine.”
He added: “And let me also remind you that NATO allies have actually been training and supporting the Ukrainian armed forces for years, training tens of thousands of Ukrainian forces, special operations forces, command and control, logistics. And all this is extremely important now. These troops are on the front lines fighting the invading Russian troops. Thus, the support that the Allies have provided over the years has proved extremely important.”
Later in the interview, Todd again nudged the NATO leader about whether additional Russian aggression in Ukraine would escalate the alliance’s military involvement.
“Nevertheless, would Russia’s use of chemical weapons be considered an escalation on his part that would force NATO to rethink?” Todd wondered.
“Our primary responsibility is to protect the 1 billion people living in 30 different NATO allies. And we do this by increasing our presence in the eastern part of the alliance,” Stoltenberg replied. “I also believe that no matter how this conflict ends now, we are facing a new reality, a new security reality, where Russia is more openly challenging our core security values and is willing to use military force to achieve its goals. And so we need to reset our deterrence and defense.”
The Meet the Press host later added that the head of NATO “does not yet have an answer” to the question of whether chemical weapons would constitute a red line for the organization, prompting Stoltenberg to remark that it “would be a flagrant and cruel violation of international law” for Russia to unleash a chemical attack.
“So we take this very seriously,” he continued. “But at the same time, again, we are not very, we are very aware that we need to act in such a way as to prevent this conflict from developing – from a very bloody, ugly, horrific conflict in Ukraine to what will turn out to be a full-blown a war between NATO and Russia in Europe and potentially, of course, with the direct participation of the United States.
Ring Road reporters report that Todd is joking with Stoltenberg about a potential escalation of NATO’s military involvement in the war between Ukraine and Russia. Came under criticism for apparently calling on the White House to provide Ukraine with more open military support, which would allegedly draw the United States into a direct armed conflict with Russia.