BRUSSELS (Reuters) – NATO is expected to ask its military commanders on Wednesday to draw up plans for further deterrence measures against Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, including the deployment of additional troops and the missile defense systems in eastern Europe, officials and diplomats said.
The Defense Ministers of the Member States of the Atlantic Alliance will meet with their Ukrainian counterpart Oleksi Reznikov, who should ask for additional weapons from the member countries of NATO.
“We must resume our military posture to face this new reality,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday. “Ministers will start an important discussion on concrete measures to strengthen our long-term security in all areas,” he told reporters.
While at least ten of NATO’s biggest allies, such as the United States, Great Britain or France, have deployed additional soldiers, ships and combat aircraft on the eastern flank of the alliance , NATO still has to reflect on how to deal with a new security situation in Europe in the medium term.
Russian President Vladimir Putin placed the Russian nuclear deterrent force on combat alert on 27 February. On March 13, Russian missiles struck a major military base in western Ukraine, near the border with NATO member Poland.
Jens Stoltenberg, announced on Tuesday that he had convened an extraordinary summit of the Atlantic Alliance on March 24 in Brussels to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the assistance it could provide to the authorities in kyiv.
(Report Robin Emmott; French version Camille Raynaud)