British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, U.S. President Joe Biden, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg with leaders of the U.S.-led military alliance pose for a family photo at NATO headquarters in Brussels March 24, 2022.
Johannes Thys | AFP | Getty Images
NATO has agreed to step up its defenses in Europe in the face of Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine.
After an extraordinary summit of the military alliance on Thursday in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters the organization had jointly agreed to strengthen its defense capabilities in the region.
“Today, NATO leaders agreed to recalibrate our deterrence and defense systems for the longer term to confront a new security reality. On land, we will have significantly more forces with higher readiness, with more pre-positioned equipment and supplies in the eastern part of the Alliance,” he said.
“In the air we will station more jets and strengthen our integrated air and missile defenses. At sea we will permanently have aircraft carrier strike groups, submarines and a significant number of combat ships,” he added, and members are also ready to strengthen their cyber defenses.
Further details would be decided at the next Alliance summit in June, Stoltenberg said. A statement by the alliance at the conclusion of its meeting called Russia’s aggression against Ukraine “the gravest threat to Euro-Atlantic security in decades.”
“Russia’s war against Ukraine has shattered peace in Europe and is causing enormous human suffering and destruction,” it said.
World leaders gathered in Europe on Thursday to discuss the war in Ukraine and how to help the country survive Russia’s onslaught. In addition to the extraordinary NATO summit, which takes place in Brussels, meetings of the heads of state and government of the EU and the G-7 are taking place.
Ahead of the summit, Stoltenberg said the alliance’s meeting came as leaders faced “the worst security crisis in a generation.”
Leaders would address this crisis and its implications “for Ukraine, for NATO and for the entire international rules-based order,” he said.
Stoltenberg, who has extended his tenure as Secretary-General by a year, said NATO has agreed to increase its military presence in the eastern part of the alliance, with around 40,000 additional troops deployed to the region and significant air and naval resources placed under direct NATO command.
NATO had previously announced the establishment of four new battlegroups in the eastern part of the alliance in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia. These four new combat groups will be deployed in addition to four other combat groups already present in the Baltic countries and Poland.
Stoltenberg made separate comments to CNBC on Thursday, saying, “President [Vladimir] Putin made a big mistake, starting a war, fighting a war, against an independent sovereign nation.”
“He underestimated the strength of the Ukrainian people, the courage of the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian armed forces,” he told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also addressed NATO members on Thursday and during his speech claimed that Russia used phosphorus bombs in an attack.
“This morning we had phosphorus bombs from Russia, people were killed, children were killed,” Zelenskyy said during a speech via video link to the NATO summit.
Separately, the governor of the East Luhansk region claimed early Thursday that four people had been killed by shelling and the use of phosphorus. The governor attached unconfirmed still images and video that he claimed showed buildings destroyed in the attack.
It was not possible to independently verify the claims made by Zelenskyy and the Luhansk governor. Zelenskyy did not provide any evidence in his speech.
On Wednesday, the Pentagon could not confirm the use of phosphorus when contacted by NBC’s Dan DeLuce.
Zelenskyy also appealed to NATO leaders on Thursday to step up military support to the country.
Russia “wants to go further, certainly against eastern NATO members, the Baltic states, Poland,” Zelenskyy said in a pre-recorded video address at the NATO summit, Reuters reported.
“NATO has yet to show what the alliance can do to save people,” he said.