Diplomacy has yielded nothing, now Nato must scale up military threat

Russia’s unprovoked aggression against Ukraine is causing enormous human suffering and destruction and is the gravest threat to Euro-Atlantic security in decades.

When Nato meets this week, its approach should be focused on strengthening our deterrence and defence posture in the eastern flank towards a modern Forward Defence.

We need to scale up the multidomain Allied presence, in particular land troops ,which should be boosted to the size of a brigade. We must also ensure we have interoperable combat-ready forces, with timely reinforcements by Allied forces, plus enhanced command-and-control arrangements, strengthened air and missile defence, prepositioning of ammunition, equipment and fuel, and improved infrastructure and military mobility. Transatlantic links and the US presence is crucial.

Russia’s criminal war in Ukraine, started on Feb 24, is just the latest in Russia’s continued aggression against its neighbours. The attacks of 2008 against Georgia and then 2014 against Ukraine were met with largely symbolic reaction by the international community. A lack of consequences and a sense of impunity has only emboldened the Kremlin to continue its neo-imperial land grab.

This time, the heads of state and government of Nato allies have condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the strongest possible terms and called on President Vladimir Putin to stop this war and withdraw all military forces from Ukraine. They also stressed that the Belarusian regime is complicit in Russia’s unprovoked and unjustifiable war against Ukraine and stressed the need to hold both Russia and Belarus to account.

Nato has reached out to Russia consistently over the past 30 years. Since the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Nato has tried to build a partnership, including through the Nato-Russia Council, a forum established in 2002. Russia has demonstrated that it is not interested in cooperation and dialogue with Nato. Russia chose hostilities, threats and aggression. Russia seeks to undermine Euro-Atlantic security and is using all means: military force, hybrid, cyber and disinformation attacks. Military actions against Georgia in 2008, annexation of Crimea in 2014 and support of separatists in the Donbas, plus now war against Ukraine, has undermined trust between Nato and Moscow.