“The idea of the unity of Europe as a whole, not just NATO, the G7 and this organization, is really the most important thing we can do to stop this man who we in our country believe has already committed war crimes.” Biden said in remarks to the press.
The OTAN reinforced this March 24 the support for ukraine and its unity with Russia, while the G7 of the world’s leading economies announced new sanctions against Moscow.
At an extraordinary summit held in Brussels, NATO leaders condemned “the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the strongest possible terms. In addition, they heard the request for military support “no restrictions” of the Ukrainian president.
NATO equips its forces in Eastern Europe against various threats.
Connected by videoconference, the president Volodimir Zelensky explicitly called on NATO countries to hand over Ukraine “1% of their planes, 1% of their tanks” to face the Russian invasion.
According to a US official, NATO members also evaluated the possible transfer to Ukraine of anti-ship missiles. Despite this, the same source admitted that this possibility presented “technical challenges”.
At a press conference at the end of the summit, NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, refused to offer details of the war equipment that the military alliance would pass on to the Ukrainian forces.
However, he noted that NATO leaders remained concerned that Russia uses chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in Ukraine, and therefore decided to equip its forces on the eastern flank with equipment to deal with those scenarios.
NATO has already deployed tactical combat groups in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, and is about to do the same Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia.
The G7 and NATO increase their sanctions
In parallel, the G7 (Germany, Canada, United States, France, Italy, Japan and United Kingdom), issued a statement in which they promised to work together to “cut Russia’s ability to finance (…) the war of [Vladimir] Putin”.
The group recalled that “Any transaction made in gold is covered by existing sanctions.” In addition, the G7 made a call to review Russia’s space in the international organizations, according to a senior US official.
The NATO and G7 summits were attended by the president of the United States, Joe Biden. The White House, meanwhile, announced this Thursday that the United States is willing to receive up to 100,000 Ukrainians fleeing the war.
Simultaneously, the US government reported that it will unlock “over $1 billion in additional funding” to reinforce humanitarian aid to Ukraine. The White House also announced massive sanctions against Russian politicians, tycoons and companies.
In addition to the exceptional NATO summit and the G7 meeting, the marathon of the day is completed with the start of a meeting of leaders of the European Union (EU), of which Biden and Zelensky will participate as guests, the latter by videoconference.