Tag: nato

The continued inevitable and disastrous slide into a WW3 nuclear-armed confrontation between Russian and the West continues as The New York Times reports NATO appears to actually be seriously mulling sending troops to Ukraine to serve in the role as ‘trainers’ at a moment Kiev is desperate to tap and train up new manpower. And this would be closer to front line positions as well.

“NATO allies are inching closer to sending troops into Ukraine to train Ukrainian forces, a move that would be another blurring of a previous red line and could draw the United States and Europe more directly into the war,” NY Times wrote Thursday. What has changed? The Zelensky government is now directly requesting it, apparently on a formal level for the first time of the conflict, according to officials.

The Times confirms “Ukrainian officials have asked their American and NATO counterparts to help train 150,000 new recruits closer to the front line for faster deployment.”

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The United States and Ukraine are moving toward signing a 10-year bilateral security pact. But former Pentagon analyst David Pyne sees it as a sign that Washington realizes Russia is near to outright victory in the conflict.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has this week renewed talk about signing a long-term security alliance with the United States. The Biden administration seems to be amenable to signing off on the pact.

Such a move may appear to give the U.S. a long-term foothold in Ukraine but, says Pyne, it is being proposed from a position of weakness, not strength.

Russia has all but won the war that escalated in February 2022. Earlier predictions by NATO states that Ukraine would defeat Russia are shown to be a cruel fantasy.

Despite massive supplies of weapons to Ukraine from the United States and its NATO allies, Russia is prevailing militarily. David Pyne reckons that Russia’s anticipated offensive over the summer dry period will result in a decisive victory before the end of the year.

The signing of a security pact between the U.S. and Ukraine is a way to put lipstick on what is otherwise a crushing defeat for the NATO side.

Pyne points out that Russia will be in a dominant position to make sure that Ukraine does not become a member of NATO. That has always been a key demand by Moscow

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A top US commander told Congress that NATO was prepared for a massive troop surge into Eastern Europe. The alliance has already positioned thousands of troops in its most eastward states. 

Gen. Christopher Cavoli, head of US European Command, told Congress on Wednesday that NATO is prepared to triple its troop deployments to Eastern Europe. “In the immediate aftermath of the invasion, NATO took the decision to establish new battlegroups on a standing basis,” he said. “By design, they can all go up to brigade size at a time of need. And a number of nations have already elected to go up to that.”

After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the North Atlantic alliance engaged in a massive eastward buildup, adding l battle groups in four additional countries it dubs its “eastern flank.”

NATO now has battlegroups consisting of at least 1,000 soldiers in each country. Generally, a brigade is 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers, meaning the NATO deployments could be more than tripled. The general explained that the deployments are a part of “a definite shift eastward.”  

The US now has over 100,000 troops in Europe. Other countries, such as Germany, have also moved troops eastward. Earlier this week, Berlin announced it had permanently moved troops into Lithuania for the first time since World War II. 

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In a rare moment following more than two years of war, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has belatedly admitted the Ukraine may have to compromise with Russia at the negotiating table.

He made the remarks in a fresh interview with BBC at a moment he’s urging Western allies to commit to approving his proposed five-year, 100 billion euro fund for Ukraine. As we’ve underscored before, this is largely about “Trump-proofing” NATO funding for Kiev for years to come, in anticipation that he could be in the White House next year.

Stoltenberg is still playing up the narrative that Ukraine needs major backing from the West in order to build leverage going into any potential future negotiations. Battlefield gains enabled with strong Western support could lead to an “acceptable result” for the Ukrainian side, he said.

“At the end of the day, it has to be Ukraine that decides what kind of compromises they’re willing to do, we need to enable them to be in a position where they actually achieve an acceptable result around the negotiating table,” he told BBC.

He sought to clarify that he’s not urging Ukraine to offer any concessions at this point, but said that “real peace” will only be achievable when “Ukraine prevails”.

And yet, by all accounts Ukraine forces have not made any forward advances, instead the opposite. BBC commented on Stoltenberg’s rare talk of ‘compromise’ as follows: 

But his language is notable because President Volodymyr Zelensky has always been adamant that he would never negotiate with Putin despite some calls on him to do so, including from the Pope.

Mr Stoltenberg refused to be drawn on whether he was concerned about the possible return of Donald Trump to the White House, saying only that he was sure the US would continue to be an important ally, whoever was in charge.

Zelensky’s consistent position throughout the war has been to say that he’ll never negotiate with Moscow so long as Vladimir Putin is in power.

As for Stoltenberg, he had this to say only a few weeks ago in response to Pope Francis’ position that the warring sides need to urgently find compromise and end all fighting…

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State Department consultant Edward Luttwak says that NATO countries will have to send soldiers to Ukraine or “accept catastrophic defeat,” and that Britain and France are already making preparations to do so.

Luttwak is a military strategy expert and has served as a consultant to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the National Security Council, the Department of State and the US Army.

In an article for Unherd, Luttwak warns that Ukraine’s 800,000 active personnel figure is too low to be successful in a war against Russia and that the country will continue “losing soldiers in the process who cannot be replaced” without major support.

“This arithmetic of this is inescapable: Nato countries will soon have to send soldiers to Ukraine, or else accept catastrophic defeat,” writes Luttwak.

Apparently, it’s already in process.

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Estonia has long been no friend of Russia, and a leading anti-Moscow hawkish voice within the Baltics, and that’s why a fresh interview by Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur in European media is raising eyebrows as he issued some very revealing statements.

The defense chief said in the interview with the Austrian newspaper Die Presse that all NATO countries already have NATO personnel stationed in Ukraine, but that they aren’t directly engaged in hostilities as they are there in advisory roles. He was responding to recent provocative statements by France’s Macron.

“The reality is that every NATO member country already has military personnel in Ukraine, such as military attaches or people who travel to Ukraine from time to time,” the Estonian defense chief said. “What [French] President [Emmanuel] Macron said mainly related to personnel training,” he added, according to a translation in Russian media.

Starting in late February Macron had told a gathering of top defense officials in Paris that Western boots on the ground in Ukraine should be an option as “we cannot exclude anything” in the pursuit of preventing Russia from winning the war.

Still, in the interview Pevkur emphasized that currently there’s no serious talk of NATO troops directly participating in fighting and that “this has already been ruled out.”

However, he did preview a very dangerous potential plan which would certainly lead to escalation: “Western defense officials are currently planning to set up training camps in Ukraine in a bid to avoid issues with border crossings and to speed up the preparation process,” Pevkur said to the Vienna-based publication.

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