Russia will not intimidate NATO with threats - Rutte

NATO will not be intimidated by Russian threats. The military bloc will continue to provide strong support to Kyiv.

This was stated by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, RBC-Ukraine reports citing Reuters.

“The message (to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin - ed.) is that we will continue, we will do everything necessary to ensure that he does not achieve his goal, that Ukraine will win,” Rutte said.

The agency specifies that the Secretary General said these words on Monday, speaking at Clay Barracks, the US base where the headquarters of a new mission called NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU), which will gradually take over the coordination of Western military assistance to Kyiv.

In particular, this move is widely seen as an attempt to protect the aid mechanism from a possible return to the White House of NATO critic Donald Trump. However, diplomats acknowledge that transferring the coordination of military aid to NATO may have limited effect, given that the United States is the dominant power in the Alliance and supplies Ukraine with most of its weapons.

Speaking in one of the 12 green tents that will house NSATU, Rutte referred to allied troops from more than a dozen countries already working on the mission, which will later move to a nearby hangar and be supplemented by Ukrainian troops.

NSATU is expected to have a total strength of about 700, including troops stationed at NATO's SHAPE military headquarters in Belgium and at logistics centers in Poland and Romania.

The Wiesbaden base also houses the US unit responsible for the long-range missiles that Washington will temporarily deploy to Germany starting in 2026 to counter the threat both countries believe is posed by Russian missiles stationed near Kaliningrad, about 500 kilometers from Berlin.

During his first visit to Germany as NATO chief, Rutte welcomed the move, which was condemned as a provocation by Russia and sparked a heated debate in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democratic Party.

He also said that it is crucial for NATO to have the full range of capabilities needed to deter the Russian threat.

“We are NATO. We are a defensive alliance, we do not attack. We are not interested in taking over any part of any other country outside of NATO territory. As a democratic alliance, the strongest alliance in world history, serving 1 billion people, we are ready to face any threat. We will never be intimidated by our adversaries,” he said.

Author - Dmitriy Levchenko, 15/10/2024