Nato leaders on Thursday agreed to bolster defences, particularly in eastern Europe, and will deploy four new combat units in Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary, president of the United States Joe Biden has said in a statement.
They will also develop plans for additional forces and capabilities before their June summit, Mr Biden said during his trip to Europe to address Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
It was also announced on Thursday that the US and Britain would work together to ship more liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe. Energy has largely been omitted from sanctions against Russia, the biggest loophole in measures that have otherwise frozen Russia out of world commerce.
The British ambassador to Washington said: “The LNG terminal in Baltimore will ship more LNG to the UK, and we’ll ship it on to Europe.” US officials have also said a major energy announcement is expected on Friday during Mr Biden’s trip to Europe.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Nato, European Union and G7 countries meeting in Brussels to help Kyiv fight the invasion, which has killed thousands and driven a quarter of Ukraine’s 44 million people from their homes.
“We are determined to continue to impose costs on Russia to bring about the end of this brutal war,” Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg told the leaders gathered at the Western military alliance’s headquarters. “We will discuss allied support to Ukraine. We will also address Nato’s efforts to strengthen our defences now and for the years to come.”
Nato has, however, rejected repeated pleas by Kyiv to defend Ukraine’s skies from Russian air strikes, and Mr Zelenskiy – who joined the Nato summit through a video call – has complained the West had not provided tanks or modern anti-missile systems.
Nato would also not send troops or planes to Ukraine, Mr Stoltenberg reiterated as two media outlets in his native Norway reported he would stay on as the alliance’s head beyond the end of his current term later in 2022 due to the war.
“Nato has yet to show what the alliance can do to save people,” Mr Zelenskiy told the summit, adding he believed Russian president Vladimir Putin wanted to attack eastern Nato members – Poland and the Baltic states – as well.
Mr Putin says his “special military operation” is meant to disarm Ukraine, whose aspirations to join Nato and the EU are anathema to Moscow.
A destroyed house in the city of Zhytomyr, northern Ukraine. Photograph: Fadel Senna/AFP via Getty Images
Sanctions
A Nato official estimated that up to 15,000 Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine so far and that a total of up to 40,000 have been killed, wounded, taken prisoner or are missing.
The month-long land, sea and air assault targeted residential areas, schools and hospitals in Ukrainian cities including Kharkiv as well as besieging Mariupol on the Sea of Azov. Russia denies targeting civilians.
Britain on Thursday sanctioned another wave of Russia’s banks including Gazprombank and Alfa Bank, as well as a woman who London said was the stepdaughter of Sergei Lavrov, Mr Putin’s veteran foreign minister.
“Putin has already crossed the red line into barbarism,” British prime minister Boris Johnson said, adding: “The harder our sanctions . . . the more we can do to help Ukraine . . . the faster this thing can be over.”
Mr Johnson told LBC radio earlier that one option was to see if more could be done to prevent the Russian president from accessing his gold reserves, which could stop people buying Russian gold to convert it into hard currency.
The resolve to punish Moscow with massive sanctions will be underlined by an emergency meeting of the G7 advanced economies, which will bring Japan into the room with six Nato members.
Then, with a summit of the 27-nation European Union, countries representing more than half of the world’s gross domestic product will have met in one day.
Ukrainian servicemen load a fragment of a rocket on to a truck outside a building in Kyiv after it was destroyed by Russian shelling. Photograph: Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images
Devastation
On Wednesday night Mr Zelenskiy urged people around the world to take to the streets in solidarity with his country, where thousands of people have been killed, millions became refugees, and cities have been pulverised since Mr Putin unleashed his invasion on February 24th.
More than half of the children in Ukraine have been displaced since the assault began, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund. The total figure of 4.3 million children includes more than 1.8 million who have crossed into neighbouring countries as refugees and 2.5 million who are internally displaced inside Ukraine.
In Mariupol, the southern port city that has come to symbolise Ukraine’s plight, people were burying their dead and queuing for rations in pauses in the bombing.
One woman there, Viktoria, buried her 73-year-old stepfather, Leonid, killed when the car ferrying him to a hospital was blown up 12 days ago.
“This guy had taken a seat instead of me and then they all got blown up in that car,” she said, pointing to the mangled remains of the vehicle. “It could have been me.”
Hundreds of thousands of people have been hiding in basements in Mariupol with no running water, food, medicine or power.
Ukrainian officials say they have pushed back the invaders in other areas, including around the capital Kyiv, thwarting Russian hopes of a swift victory.
The Biden administration said on Thursday the US plans to accept up to 100,000 Ukrainians fleeing the invasion. – Reuters
