The Russians’ target in a conflict with NATO would be the alliance’s battlegroups in Eastern Europe – Alexandroupoli is NATO’s main troop transfer hub in Eastern Europe.
NATO chief G. Stoltenberg said that support for Ukraine is in the interest of all member states, while he revealed a plan to encircle the western part of Russia.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance is to expand its presence across Eastern Europe, from the Black Sea to the Baltic, in a bid to send a “clear message” to Russia as fighting continues unabated in Ukraine. .
Speaking in Romania ahead of a two-day NATO summit, Stoltenberg told reporters that Europe was facing “the biggest security crisis of a generation”, stressing the need to strengthen areas of “strategic importance” in retaliation for its continued aggressive policy. Moscow.
“In response to Russia’s aggression, NATO is strengthening its presence from the Baltic to the Black Sea. We have created new battle groups, including the French one here in Romania.
Canadian fighter jets also help keep your airspace safe, and American Patriot missiles bolster your defenses. This sends a clear message that NATO is here. We will do whatever is necessary to protect and defend all allies,” he stressed.
Asked when Sweden and Finland would be accepted into the alliance, Stoltenberg said he was “certain” the bloc’s 30 members would eventually approve their applications, but he could not say when that would happen, as Turkey and Hungary they have not yet ratified the decision.
However, he noted that the two Nordic states would help “strengthen the eastern side, especially the Baltic”, given their “well-trained and well-equipped advanced military capabilities”.
The NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Bucharest resulted in members “considering ways to increase support for Ukraine.”
The NATO chief cited Romania’s “significant military assistance” to Kyiv and claimed it was “in our own security interest to support Ukrainian forces”, while insisting: “We cannot let [Russian President Vladimir] Putin win ». It was decided to provide Ukraine with new air defense systems, train soldiers on how to use them, as well as supply spare parts and ammunition for weapons already on the battlefield.
Kyiv will receive more than $19 billion in direct military aid since the end of February, including dozens of long-range artillery missile systems (HIMARS), more than 46,000 anti-tank weapons and nearly 200 artillery pieces.
Washington and its partners have pledged to continue this aid, despite reports that the majority of NATO nations have severely depleted their stockpiles of weapons and ammunition following countless arms transfers to Ukraine.
Moscow will react by opening a new front in the Balkans
Many have long estimated that in any Russian encirclement scenario, the Kremlin would react in the Balkans, which it sees as a bulwark in NATO. When we say Balkans for Russia, we mean Serbia and the Bosnian Serb republic. Moscow has long sought to play a balancing role by supporting its Serbian allies.
It’s a goal that dates back centuries, as the Russian Empire developed close cultural, political and religious ties to the Balkans.
With control of the region contested by the Catholic Western powers and the Islamic Ottoman Empire, Russia positioned itself as an ally and protector of the Orthodox Christian Slavs, especially in Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia. In modern times, Russia has seen Western interventions in Yugoslavia, especially the 1999 NATO bombing of Kosovo, then a breakaway province of Serbia, as a sign of its declining influence.
For Putin, who took power less than a year later, the Kosovo conflict was a fundamental argument against Western powers. The Russian president saw the NATO strikes on Serbian forces as a statement of intent that Russian interests would no longer be taken seriously in international decision-making.
His government will continue to support Belgrade and Banja Luka, while the scenario that would change the situation would be the presence of Russian military forces in one of the two countries.
After all, Russia’s deepest plan is the creation of Iskander missile system bases in this region aimed at NATO forces in Eastern Europe. But such a scenario would shake the Balkans up in the air, causing a war involving both local ethnic issues as well as Turkey in the region, with the risk of provoking a global conflict.
