A new support project for Ukraine is to be launched at the next NATO summit. However, the German government did not want to accept the planned name. Now there is a new one.
In the dispute over the naming of a new NATO project for Ukraine, the German government has prevailed against other allies.
As the German Press Agency learned from diplomats, the project will no longer be called “NATO Mission Ukraine” (NMU) for the time being, but “NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine” (NSATU). This is intended to make it clear that it is about security support and training activities for the country attacked by Russia.
Most NATO states had previously spoken out in favor of the name “NATO Mission Ukraine.” However, the German government took the view that this could be mistakenly understood as if the alliance wanted to send soldiers to Ukraine. It therefore feared that the name could be used by Russia for propaganda against the alliance, it said.
Federal government saw propaganda threat
Proponents of the use of the term mission, however, argued that the Kremlin would condemn the NATO project as aggression and use it for disinformation campaigns.
It is incomprehensible that Germany is the only country to take to the barricades because of this – especially since it says it is fully behind the plans. They are primarily about the international coordination of arms deliveries and training activities for the Ukrainian armed forces.
The launch of the new project to support Ukraine should ideally be decided at the next alliance summit between Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and the other heads of state and government of the NATO states in Washington. It is also seen as a precaution in the event of a possible return of Donald Trump to the US presidency from January 2025.
Statements by the Republican in the past had raised doubts as to whether the US would continue to support Ukraine under his leadership in the defensive war against Russia. There are fears within the alliance that a political change of course in Washington could also affect the coordination of arms deliveries and training activities for the Ukrainian armed forces.
So far, the US has coordinated
This task has so far been carried out by the United States. At the end of 2022, they set up a unit of around 300 soldiers called Security Assistance Group-Ukraine (SAG-U) at the European headquarters of the US armed forces in Wiesbaden (Hesse). The NATO mission is now expected to have roughly the same number of personnel.
Source: Stern
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