NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced in an interview with The Telegraph that in an effort to battle future Russian aggression, the alliance is working on plans for a permanent, full-scale military presence on its eastern flank to deter Russia.
Pointing out that what we see now is a new reality – new normal for European security- Stoltenberg said that NATO has asked its military commanders to provide options for a so-called ‘reset’, a longer-term fundamental transformation and adaptation of NATO that will reflect the long-term consequences of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions.
Both NATO and the other Western nations were forced to rethink their defense policies following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which has triggered the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two.
According to Stoltenberg, all decisions on the reset would be made during the scheduled June NATO summit to be held in Madrid.
He noted last month that the alliance has 40,000 troops under direct command, mostly in Eastern Europe, and that NATO’s individual members are continually supplying Ukraine with weapons.
The arms sent to Kyiv range from anti-tank and anti-aircraft missile systems to tanks and armored fighting vehicles.
NATO plans its permanent presence despite the fact that Russia considers NATO’s eastward expansion a threat to its security.
Moscow listed Kyiv’s aspirations to join the alliance as one of the reasons behind its offensive, but Kyiv argues that the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the breakaway Donbas republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, two republics that Russia meanwhile recognized as independent.
On top of stressing that Ukraine must officially declare itself a neutral state with regard to NATO, Moscow also claimed that Kyiv failed to implement the terms of the 2014 Minsk agreements designed to regularize the status of the regions within the Ukrainian state.
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