Nato flexes muscles with big exercise on Putin’s doorstep
Thousands of Nato troops are taking part in the largest ever exercise to test their air and missile defence systems, amid fears that the war in Ukraine could spill over into other territory.
As jets pretending to be hostile fly over Poland and the Baltic states as part of the war games, defence ministers have gathered in Iceland for talks on the continuing hostilities.
Iceland’s Foreign Minister Thordis Gylfadottir told the ‘‘northern group’’ of 12 nations, including Britain, that they must prepare for the ‘‘worst-case scenario’’ where Russia was concerned. ‘‘The threat of a direct military aggression against a Nato country can no longer be excluded.’’
About 3000 Nato troops are taking part in Ramstein Legacy, which involves 17 allied nations exercising in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia with aircraft, missile defence systems and electronic warfare systems. Seventeen air and missile defence systems are being tested in a show of force.
Latvian Defence Minister Artis Pabriks said Nato wanted to deliver a strong message to Russia that its territory would be ‘‘defended starting from the first metre, and will not be lost’’.
■ The ripple effects of the war in Ukraine are increasing the suffering of millions of people by escalating food and energy prices and worsening a financial crisis, coming on top of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change, a United Nations report says.
The UN Global Crisis Response Group said the war ‘‘has exacerbated a global cost-of-living crisis unseen in at least a generation’’, and was undermining UN aspirations to end extreme poverty around the globe and achieve 16 other goals for a better world by 2030.
The group, appointed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to assess the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, also said 60% of workers had lower real incomes today than before the pandemic, and 60% of the poorest countries were in debt distress or at high risk of it.
‘‘The war’s impact on food security, energy and finance is systemic, severe and speeding up,’’ Guterres said. He said the conflict, along with other crises, ‘‘is threatening to unleash an unprecedented wave of hunger and destitution, leaving social and economic chaos in its wake’’.
Food prices were near record highs, and fertiliser prices had doubled, Guterres said. ‘‘Without fertilisers, shortages will spread from corn and wheat to all staple crops, including rice, with a devastating impact on billions of people in Asia and South America, too.
‘‘This year’s food crisis is about lack of access. Next year’s could be about lack of food.’’
According to the report, about 180 million people in 41 of 53 countries where data was available are forecast to be facing a food crisis or worse conditions this year, and 19 million more people are expected to face ‘‘chronic undernourishment globally’’ in 2023.
In addition, the report said, record high energy prices were triggering fuel shortages and blackouts in all parts of the world, especially in Africa.
Guterres said many developing countries were facing a continuing financial squeeze on top of the risk of debt default and economic collapse because of the Covid pandemic and the unequal recovery from it, and the climate crisis.
According to the report, one of every two countries in subSaharan Africa remain significantly vulnerable and are exposed to all three dimensions of the crisis. The Latin American and Caribbean region is the second-largest group facing the cost-of-living crisis, with nearly 20 countries deeply affected.