Category Archives: Nato

Ex-Nato chief proposes Ukraine joins without Russian-occupied territories

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Former secretary general says partial membership would warn Russia it cannot stop Ukraine joining the alliance

A former Nato secretary general has put forward a proposal for Ukraine to join the military alliance but stripped of the territories occupied by Russia.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen has long worked alongside Andriy Yermak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, particularly ahead of the last Nato summit in Vilnius this year that ended with no invitation for Ukraine to join.

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Turkey’s president submits bill to ratify Sweden’s Nato membership

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Erdoğan signs protocol and sends it to Turkish parliament after agreeing to Sweden’s membership at Nato summit in July

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has removed one of the final hurdles blocking Sweden from joining Nato by submitting a bill approving membership to parliament for ratification.

The move on Monday was in line with a commitment Erdoğan made to Nato at its summit in July when he said he would send the bill to parliament for ratification when parliament restarted in October.

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Russia-Ukraine war: IOC bans Russian Olympic Committee for including annexed regions of Ukraine

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International Olympic Committee says inclusion of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia merits immediate suspension

Romania’s defence ministry has reported the discovery of a drone crater near the country’s border with Ukraine after Russian attacks on Ukrainian port infrastructure on Wednesday evening.

Reuters reports the ministry said there was a “possible explosion on impact”, and measures had been taken to secure the area and forces would continue to monitor Romania’s airspace.

Avdiivka. We are holding our ground. It is Ukrainian courage and unity that will determine how this war will end. We must all remember this.

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Pressure mounts for Turkey and Hungary to ratify Swedish Nato bid – as it happened

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At Nato meeting of foreign ministers, ongoing saga of Sweden’s bid to join organisation in spotlight again

One issue defence ministers will discuss today is the implementation of the alliance’s new military plans – and how equipment and troops will be placed on Nato’s sensitive eastern flank.

The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, assured other Nato defence ministers that it was possible to give strong support to both Israel and Ukraine, a US official and a European diplomat told the Guardian.

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Nato vows to respond if Finland-Estonia gas pipeline damage is deliberate

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Alliance’s chief says if there is proof of attack it will be met with ‘determined’ response, amid speculation about Russian sabotage

Nato has promised a “determined” response if damage to an undersea gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia proves deliberate, as investigators said traces of an “external, mechanical force” had been found on the seabed.

Amid widespread media speculation about the likelihood of Russian sabotage, Risto Lohi of the Finnish national bureau of investigation told a press conference in Helsinki on Wednesday: “There is reason to suspect an external force … caused the damage.” The force, he added, “appears to have been mechanical, not an explosion”.

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Zelenskiy fears Middle East conflict could hit military aid to Ukraine

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President warns of ‘dangerous situation’ for his country as western attention shifts to Israel after Hamas attack

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said he fears that the aftermath of Hamas’s attack on Israel and US politics could threaten military support for his country, as he made a surprise visit to Brussels where Nato defence ministers are meeting.

“I want to be honest with you, of course it is a dangerous situation for people in Ukraine,” he said on his first visit to Nato headquarters since Russia’s 2022 invasion, making an in-person plea for continued assistance at a time when turbulence in the US Congress threatens to disrupt aid for Kyiv and the world’s attention is drawn to the crisis unfolding in the Middle East.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Russian missile strike kills at least four in school, say Ukrainian officials – as it happened

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Rescuers searching for people under rubble of school in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk, says regional governor

Secretary general of Nato Jens Stoltenberg is greeting Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy outside Nato headquarters. They are expected to address the media. I will bring you any key quotes or lines that emerge.

Netherland’s defence secretary Kajsa Ollongren has said outside the Nato headquarters in Brussels that there is “no doubt” that the alliance “will continue to support Ukraine for as long as it takes”.

We will say today in presence of president Zelenskiy that the war in Ukraine, the Russian aggression in Ukraine, is not a regional conflict, is not just Ukraine’s problem. We feel it is also our responsibility to support Ukraine to withstand this aggression, to fight back against this aggression, and we are very much aware of the fact that they need us to do so. They need us for training, for capabilities, for ammunition. And we are steadfast in our support.

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US shoots down Turkish drone flying near its troops in Syria

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Turkey’s defence ministry says the device did not belong to the country’s armed forces

The US has shot down an armed Turkish drone that was operating near its troops in Syria, the first time Washington has brought down an aircraft of its Nato ally.

A Turkish defence ministry official said the drone did not belong to the Turkish armed forces, but did not say whose property it was.

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Kosovan government calls on Serbia to pull all troops from border

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Demand follows part withdrawal after US warning of potential punitive measures against Belgrade

Kosovo has demanded that Serbia pull its troops back from their common border and warned it was ready to protect its territorial integrity, after the US warned of punitive measures against Belgrade and Serbia’s president insisted he “does not want war”.

“We call on … Serbia to immediately withdraw all troops from the border with Kosovo,” the Kosovan government said, demanding that Belgrade “demilitarise” 48 forward military and police bases, “which pose a permanent threat to our country”.

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‘Goal is destruction of Ukraine’: ex-defence minister warns west of Putin’s aim

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Oleksii Reznikov urges unity against Russia ‘to save this world from catastrophe of world war three’

Ukraine’s former defence minister has warned his western counterparts that negotiations with Moscow will not bring peace, and that Vladimir Putin remains determined to destroy Ukraine entirely and to “assimilate” its citizens into the Russian Federation.

In an article for the Guardian, Oleksii Reznikov says any “deal” with the Kremlin would not end the conflict. “Russia demands the recognition of the occupied territories of Ukraine as its territory in exchange for the end of the war,” he writes.

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Nato pledges ‘strong solidarity’ with Romania over likely Russian drone debris

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Romanian president deplores potential ‘serious violation of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Romania, a Nato ally’

Nato has said it stands in “strong solidarity” with Romania, which has reported that parts of a probable Russian drone fell on its territory during a Russian attack on neighbouring Ukraine.

“We continue to monitor the situation closely, and we remain in close contact with our ally Romania,” Nato said in a statement on Wednesday night.

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Nato official apologises over suggestion Ukraine could give up land for membership

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Secretary general’s chief of staff says statement was ‘mistake’ and part of wider discussion – but does not completely rule out idea

A senior Nato official has apologised and clarified his comments a day after he said publicly that Ukraine could give up territory to Russia in exchange for Nato membership and an end to the war.

Stian Jenssen, the chief of staff to the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, told a Norwegian newspaper that he should not have spoken as simplistically as he did, after his initial comments prompted an angry reaction from Kyiv.

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Russia spreading false claims about Qur’an burnings to harm Nato bid, says Sweden

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Defence agency says Moscow is using the protests in Stockholm to stir tensions between Arab countries and the west

The Swedish authorities have accused Russia of trying to influence how Qur’an burnings are viewed around the world through disinformation campaigns written in Arabic. It is believed to be part of an attempt to disrupt Sweden’s Nato membership process, which is still waiting for approval by Turkey and Hungary.

Sweden’s psychological defence agency, part of the Ministry of Defence, said that the Russian state-controlled media outlets RT and Sputnik had published a series of articles in Arabic, falsely claiming that the Swedish government supported Qur’an burning. Since the end of June, the authorities have logged about a million similar posts in Arabic and other languages. The warning from the agency – a cold war-era body brought back last year to fight foreign disinformation as tensions with Russia escalated – follows another burning in a spate of such desecrations in Sweden.

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John Bolton suggests US will leave Nato if ‘erratic’ Trump wins in 2024

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Ex-national security adviser calls former boss ‘irrational’ and criticizes Republicans who support him on foreign policy

Ex-national security adviser John Bolton issued harsh remarks against his former boss and the leading 2024 Republican presidential candidate, saying that the US will likely withdraw from Nato if Donald Trump wins the election.

In an interview with the Hill on Thursday, Bolton criticized the former president’s foreign policy after an op-ed he wrote earlier this week called Trump’s behavior “erratic, irrational and unconstrained”.

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West must focus on preparing Ukraine’s troops – or we will all pay the price | Jack Watling

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A bureaucratic, peacetime approach to training and stockpiling among Zelenskiy’s allies is posing a threat to European security

For two months Ukrainian forces have been endeavouring to fight their way through densely fortified Russian positions to breach the so-called Surovikin line in an attempt to liberate their territory. Fighting has been exceedingly hard, with heavy losses of equipment and personnel on both sides. Irrespective of how much progress is made over the coming months, Ukraine’s international partners need to focus their assistance on preparing Ukrainian armed forces for the next fight.

It is important to understand the challenge the Ukrainians are trying to overcome. Russian troops are fighting from successive layers of concrete-hardened positions, each behind 120-500 metres of complex minefields. They are backed up by significant artillery and attack helicopter support and protected by dense electronic warfare and air defences. Although Ukrainian troops tend to win when they get into close combat with the Russians, getting there without taking unsustainable losses is not always possible.

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Protests across Muslim nations after Sweden allows second attack on Qur’an

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Stockholm apologetic amid fears Turkey may delay lifting Nato veto following desecration of holy book

Thousands of people took part in protests across Muslim majority nations on Friday after a second incident in Sweden involving the desecration of the Qur’an.

The episode left the Swedish government apologetic and fearing that the outrage in the Middle East may delay Turkey lifting its veto on Sweden’s membership of Nato.

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Ben Wallace to quit as defence secretary and stand down as MP at next reshuffle

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Defence secretary rows back comments about Ukraine needing to show ‘gratitude’ and says he will not contest next general election

Ben Wallace is to leave government at the next cabinet reshuffle after four years as defence secretary and will not stand in the general election.

Wallace, who has played a key role in responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and was a close ally of Boris Johnson, told the Sunday Times he was “not standing next time” but he ruled out leaving parliament “prematurely” and forcing another byelection on Rishi Sunak, of whom he remains supportive.

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Boris Johnson criticises ‘mealy-mouthed’ Nato over Ukraine membership

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Former prime minister condemns ‘procrastination’ and says no country is in greater need of accession

Boris Johnson has criticised Nato’s “mealy mouthed procrastination” and called for a timetable to be drawn up for Ukraine to join the alliance, after this week’s difficult summit in Lithuania.

Writing in his weekly column in the Daily Mail, the former prime minister said it was “no wonder” that Volodymyr Zelenskiy “found it hard” to conceal his frustration at the joint declaration released on Tuesday that stopped short of outlining a roadmap to Nato membership.

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US and UK call for more gratitude from Kyiv after Zelenskiy’s Nato complaint

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Comments come after Ukrainian leader complained his country had not been given firm timetable for joining alliance

Britain’s defence secretary and the US national security adviser have suggested Ukraine ought to show more gratitude for the help it has received from the west, in response to Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s complaints that his country has not been issued a firm timetable or set of conditions for joining Nato.

Their unscripted remarks – at two different events on the margins of the second day of the Nato summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius – appeared to prompt a change of tack from the Ukrainian leader on Wednesday, who later said he was “grateful to all leaders of Nato countries” for their support and help.

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Zelenskiy forced to recalibrate to avert Nato summit falling-out

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Ukrainian president’s frustration threatened to overshadow meeting – and did not go unnoticed by other leaders

It was, by the standards of international summits, an undiplomatic intervention. A clearly frustrated Volodymyr Zelenskiy tweeted that Nato allies were showing Ukraine disrespect, that they were discussing his country’s hopes of joining the military alliance without him. “It seems there is no readiness neither to invite Ukraine to Nato nor to make it a member of the alliance,” he wrote.

The outburst was certainly last minute, coming less than an hour before Joe Biden, Rishi Sunak and Nato other’s 29 leaders were due to sign off a final summit declaration on the topic. It turned out to be a communique that did not spell out a timeline by which Ukraine could join, nor a list of conditions it would have to meet, nor even extend an invitation to join at an unspecified future date once the war with Russia is over.

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