Nato may not defend Ukraine against Russia

EU and US support Kyiv but Nato chief says Ukraine as an outside partner could not rely on its defence

NATO is unlikely to go to war to defend Ukraine in the event of a Russian attack, the head of the transatlantic alliance suggested yesterday, as members gathered to discuss Moscow’s troop buildup on the eastern European country’s borders.

Europe and the US have underlined their support for Kyiv in recent weeks as fears grow that the Kremlin could be planning an imminent invasion.

However, Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s Secretary General, drew a distinction between alliance members and outside partners, making it clear Ukraine could not expect to rely on the collective defence commitments of the North Atlantic Treaty.

“Nato allies ... there we provide [Article 5] guarantees, collective defence guarantees, and we will defend and protect all allies,” he said.

“Ukraine is a partner, a highly valued partner. We provide support, political, practical support,” he added ahead of a Nato summit in Riga.

“There’s a difference between a partner [like] Ukraine and an ally like, for instance, Latvia.” At the same time, he warned that Russia would pay a “high price” were it to invade.

Mr Stoltenberg said Nato had already demonstrated its will and ability to impose damaging economic and political sanctions on Moscow in the event of aggression against its neighbours.

Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, said ahead of the summit that an assault on Ukraine would be a “strategic mistake” for the Kremlin but she did not specify whether a British response would include direct military support for Ukraine.

Russia has been fighting an undeclared war with Ukraine since 2014, when Moscow annexed Crimea and sent troops to support a separatist uprising in the country’s eastern Donbas region. The war there has been locked in a stalemate since 2015, but Russia has deployed large numbers of troops near the Ukrainian border this year and the United States has told allies that it has reason to believe Moscow is preparing for a major offensive.

Dmytro Kuleba, the Ukrainian foreign minister, said on Monday that a Russian attack could occur “in the blink of an eye” and called on Western allies to step up economic, political and military deterrence to dissuade the Kremlin from such a course.

Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, said ahead of the summit that “any renewed aggression would trigger serious consequences.”

At the Riga summit, he is expected to brief his 29 Nato counterparts on intelligence that goes beyond the visible troop build up.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, yesterday played down reports of an invasion but refused to explicitly rule it out.

Instead he accused Nato of exacerbating threats against Russia and warned further expansion of Western military infrastructure in Ukraine would be considered a “red line”.