“We are living in threatening, dangerous times,” mentioned German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht at a signing ceremony the place Germany and greater than a dozen of European Nato members dedicated to collectively procuring weapons for a “European Sky Shield” to raised shield their territory.
Moscow renewed warnings that extra navy help for Kyiv agreed earlier this week on the Nato assembly made members of the US-led navy alliance “a direct party to the conflict,” and mentioned admitting Ukraine to the alliance would set off a World War.
“Kyiv is well aware that such a step would mean a guaranteed escalation to a World War Three,” deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, Alexander Venediktov, informed the state TASS information company on Thursday.
Moscow has repeatedly justified the Feb. 24 invasion that has killed tens of hundreds of individuals, in what it calls a “special operation”, by saying Ukraine’s ambitions to affix the alliance posed a risk to Russia’s safety.
Nato isn’t more likely to shortly enable Ukraine to affix, not least as a result of its membership throughout an ongoing struggle would put the United States and allies into direct battle with Russia underneath the alliance’s collective defence clause.
Washington and different Nato members have supplied Ukraine with weapons to combat Russia and imposed sweeping financial sanctions however have tried to keep away from extra direct involvement within the struggle. Ahead of the assembly of Nato’s defence ministers, together with close-door talks by its nuclear planning group, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin vowed to defend “every inch” of members’ territory.
