The US president and his NATO colleagues They gathered for a group photo before the summit, which is expected to last several hours and will feature a message from Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky.
NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenbergopened the meeting by saying the US-led Atlantic alliance was determined to continue to ramp up pressure on Russia to stop its invasion of Ukraine, launched a month ago.
Biden arrived in Brussels last night with the goal of agreeing with his allies on new sanctions against Russia, which has already been the target of harsh economic penalties and boycotts by large corporations and international sports organizations.
NATO has already said it will not send troops to Ukraine to fight Russian forces, although their countries are sending weapons to the Ukrainian military to defend against the invasion.
NATO says it is concerned about Russian rhetoric and fears Moscow wants to create a “pretext” to use chemical weapons in Ukraine.
Arriving at NATO headquarters for the summit, Stoltenberg said a Russian chemical attack on Ukraine would upset the course of the war, although he declined to say whether the alliance would respond with military action.
“I don’t want to speculate beyond the fact that NATO is always ready to defend itself, to protect itself and react to any kind of attack on a NATO-allied country.”he said, asked about a possible attack with Russian chemical weapons.
“Any use of chemical weapons would fundamentally change the nature of the conflict. It would be a flagrant violation of international law, and would have far-reaching and severe consequences.”he added, the Europa Press news agency reported.
Alliance leaders plan to agree to send equipment to help Ukraine protect itself from threats of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons attacks.
Zelensky, who is scheduled to deliver a virtual address to NATO leaders, said last night that he wanted the alliance to “declare that it will fully help Ukraine win this war” by supplying it with the necessary weapons.
NATO rulers are also scheduled to consent to the establishment of four new multinational battalions in Eastern European member countries to deter any possible Russian attack.
NATO’s expansion to the East after the fall of the Soviet Union despite promises to the contrary to Russia is one of the reasons why Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, which is now in its first month.
Putin said that Ukraine’s entry into NATO, as kyiv and the United States intend, is an existential threat to Russia, and that it would allow the deployment of missiles in that country that would reach Moscow in five minutes.
Putin and Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told CNN this week that Russia might consider using its nuclear weapons in the event of “an existential threat to our country.”
Source: Ambito
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