“Russia has threatened peace on the European continent. Moscow bears a great deal of responsibility for this deliberate bloodshed and this long-term invasion. ” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said this when opening the extraordinary virtual summit of NATO heads of state and government. While the NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, declared at a press conference: «NATO condemns the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the strongest possible terms. This is a deliberate, cold-blooded and long-planned invasion. This is a clear violation of international law and a serious threat to Euro-Atlantic security ”.
Defense plan activated
It had never happened before. Or maybe yes, but it was never made public, as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg admitted: the Atlantic Alliance, in the hours immediately following the Russian invasion, activated the so-called “Defense Plan”. In fact, an alert level that is only one degree lower than the maximum, or an attack on one of the allied countries. The Atlantic Council met in the Brussels headquarters in the early hours of the morning to ratify a move that gives a sense of the ongoing danger to the security of the Old Continent. “The moment is serious, the war is in Europe”, was Stoltenberg’s sentence. The meeting of the Atlantic Council was requested by Bulgaria, Poland and Lithuania on the basis of Article 4, which is triggered in the event of a “serious threat” to one of the transatlantic allies. From 1949 to today it is the seventh time that this point of the Treaties has been invoked. The condemnation of Moscow is very strong, the call to the Kremlin on the stop to military aggression is reiterated with “urgency and in the strongest possible terms”. The Alliance, however, does not change its nature which remains strictly defensive.
If a missile falls on Lithuanian soil, NATO will react
The eastern flank of NATO, already filled with troops in recent days, will be further armored. And if a Russian missile ends up in Lithuanian, Latvian or Estonian land then the Alliance would react. “But Moscow will not attack us, our Alliance is stronger”, Stoltenberg assured, explaining that there will be any kind of support for Kiev. but not the direct military one: “We will not send troops to Ukraine and we are not planning it,” reiterated the secretary general. It is on the eastern flank, from Bucharest up to Tallin, that NATO has moved instead. The activation of the defense plan gives more powers to the generals in the field, who can then decide to move the contingents with greater flexibility. One hundred jets and 120 ships are monitoring the borders of the Alliance. The NATO Early Warning & Control Force planes left in the afternoon from the German base Geilenkirchen to survey the skies of the east flank where, Stoltenberg recalled, “many countries have sent thousands of troops”.
“Brutal act on the Russian side”
American, British and German troops stationed in the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea and also Italy – where the two bases of Vicenza and Sigonella are fully operational – in recent days has amply assured that it will do its part. On Friday, NATO leaders will meet in a videoconference summit to take stock of the situation. Certainly Vladimir Putin’s move had the effect of further tightening the Alliance. “The accession of Finland, Sweden, Ukraine or Georgia is a free choice of these governments, we do not accept compromises with Moscow”, reiterated Stoltenberg, warning the Kremlin that from the Allies there will be no recognition of the two separatist republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. “That of Russia was a brutal act. Peace on the continent has been shattered “, Stoltenberg underlined, taking, in his own way, a small revenge against those who, even in Europe, in recent weeks, had remained rather skeptical of his warnings about the war at the gates:” what we had foreseen has happened “.