On Friday 14 June, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that the defence ministers of the Allied countries had agreed on a plan defining the way in which NATO will lead the coordination of security assistance and training for Ukraine.
This agreement will enable the leaders to launch this effort at the Washington Summit in July and put “support to Ukraine on a firmer footing for years to come”, he stressed at the end of the ministerial meeting in Brussels.
This plan “will consist of a NATO command, located at a U.S. facility in Wiesbaden, and at Logistical nodes in the Eastern part of the Alliance under a 3-Star General reporting to Supreme Allied Commander Europe, SACEUR”, explained Mr Stoltenberg. According to him, this will involve nearly 700 personnel from NATO and partner countries.
In addition, the Alliance will oversee training of Ukrainian armed forces at training facilities located in Allied countries. It will also support Kyiv through the planning and coordination of donations, manage transfer and repair of equipment, provide support to the long-term development of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, added the Secretary General.
According to Mr Stoltenberg, this plan is one of four elements of support for Ukraine. NATO is also working on a long-term financial pledge. Although the Secretary General initially spoke of a multiannual plan of €100 billion, before talking about a minimum amount of €40 billion per year, no agreement has yet been reached between the Allies. “Many Allies are very supportive of the idea that we need not only to have short term pledges (...), but if we could have more long-term predictable pledges, it will give the Ukrainians better planning assumptions”, he added. Mr Stoltenberg’s objective is to reach an agreement at the Washington Summit in July.
The Allies are also working on bringing Ukraine closer to the Alliance, both in terms of the interoperability of its armed forces, but also with language in the Summit declaration that brings Ukraine even closer to membership.
Finally, the fourth element is immediate support for Kyiv to provide it with the military equipment it needs.
Combatting hybrid attacks in allied countries
In addition to supporting Ukraine against Russia, ministers discussed the protection of their countries against Russian threats. “We have seen several examples of sabotage, attempted arson, cyberattacks and disinformation”, said Mr Stoltenberg. On Thursday, a NATO source said that there had been an “unprecedented” escalation and spread of Russian activities, in terms of frequency, geographical scope and number of attacks. “According to my definition, this exceeds the threshold of hybrid threats”, she added.
“We will be calm and measured in how we respond to Russian provocations. At the same time, we will call out Russia’s actions and impose costs”, summed up Mr Stoltenberg. According to the NATO source, no Ally is currently talking about triggering Article 4 or Article 5 of the Washington Treaty.
The ministers decided to increase the exchange of intelligence, strengthen the protection of critical infrastructures, particularly those under water and in cyberspace, and impose new restrictions on the movement of Russian intelligence service agents.
Strengthening deterrence and defence
Mr Stoltenberg also took stock of the progress made by the Allies in terms of defence and deterrence. He announced that they had offered forces to the NATO command on a “scale not seen in decades”, significantly more than the goal of 300,000 set at the Madrid summit. “Today, we have 500,000 troops at high readiness across all domains”, announced Mr Stoltenberg. He added that NATO had also doubled the number of battle groups on the eastern flank.
At the July Summit, the Allies are also expected to endorse a new defence industrial pledge and to continue to adapt NATO’s nuclear capabilities. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)