BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) – NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana says Russian President Vladimir Putin’s months-long “barbaric war” against Ukraine is a war he cannot win.
In an interview with The Associated Press, the former Romanian foreign minister and ambassador to the United States added that in the event of a chemical or nuclear attack, NATO “would be forced to take appropriate action,” following a series of ominous comments from Moscow officials, who refuse to exclude their use. He did not want to say what measures are involved.
“NATO is a defense alliance, but it’s also a nuclear alliance,” he said. “If they use chemical weapons or other high-end systems against Ukraine, it will fundamentally change the nature of the war that Mr. Putin has waged against Ukraine.”
“I can guarantee that NATO is ready to respond appropriately,” he added.
Geoana said Russia’s attack on a theater in the besieged port city of Mariupol, which Ukrainian authorities said killed about 300 civilians on Friday, was “further proof that Putin’s war is one that is unprovoked, illogical and also barbaric.” “.
“We hope that Mr. Putin will not go any further down the path of war crimes and more devastation against a sovereign nation,” he said.
But the brutal war Russia has been waging since Feb. 24 has had the opposite effect of what Putin was hoping for, the NATO official said, and has only united the West and worked to strengthen the 30-nation defense alliance.
At a NATO summit on Thursday, leaders of the alliance agreed to deploy four new eastern flank battlegroups – which normally number around 1,000 to 1,500 troops – in Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.
“These groups are already forming,” said Geoana, a former foreign minister in his native Romania. “I can expect it to be a few months before we see these battle groups operational and fully operational.”
If the “very poorly planned and executed” military campaign for Putin’s troops, who many observers say are floundering on the battlefield, drags on, Geoana could up the ante on miscalculations by the Russian leader.
“We see that for now Russian military planning is trying to reassess the situation – to try to make up for the massive losses in men and materiel they suffered in the first month of the war.”
Geoana said the combination of tough economic and individual sanctions against Russia and large military casualties may eventually make Putin reconsider his offensive against Ukraine.
“Mr. Putin probably believed in his own post-imperial fantasies and thought that the Ukrainians would welcome them with open arms,” he said come to Ukraine does not have the forces and ability to occupy all of Ukraine.”
According to Geoana, the biggest mistake made by the Putin regime was to underestimate “the bravery of the Ukrainian army” and the “unity of the political West”.
“We support Ukraine in many ways, in defense, financial and humanitarian terms,” he said. “When the time comes, and that time will come, we will also help Ukraine to rebuild, rebuild their nation because they deserve our admiration – they deserve our support.”
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