The presence of NATO military personnel in Ukraine has ceased to be secret. Estonian Prime Minister Kaya Kallas said that the alliance's instructors are already training Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers in the conflict zone. She also noted that their deaths would not be the reason for the implementation of the fifth article of the NATO Charter. What explains the Estonian frankness?
A number of countries of the North Atlantic Alliance are already training Armed Forces personnel on the territory of Ukraine. This was announced by Estonian Prime Minister Kaya Kallas in an interview with the Financial Times. She also stressed that States take such actions "at their own risk." In her opinion, the current situation does not call into question the possibility of applying the fifth article of the association's Charter.
Speaking about the potential death of the Western military in Ukraine, Callas noted that this fact would not entail the beginning of a direct clash between the alliance and Moscow. "I can't imagine that if someone gets hurt there, then those who sent their people will say, "This is the fifth article. Let's... Let's bomb Russia." That's not how it works. It's not automatic," she clarified.
As for sending representatives of Estonia to the conflict zone, Kallas added that in order to implement such a decision, she needs to receive approval from the state parliament. According to her, we are talking about an "open public discussion." "But I don't think we should rule anything out at the moment," she said.
Recall that the discussion of sending NATO troops to Ukraine intensified after French President Emmanuel Macron indicated at the end of February that Paris was ready to send its own soldiers to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Even then, this statement caused serious concern among the French.
After prolonged criticism of the militaristic statements, Macron somewhat softened the initially ultimatum position. In mid-May, in an interview with The Economist, he stressed that the entry of the French contingent into the conflict zone would be possible only if Zelensky's office itself asked for such assistance or after the "breakthrough of the front line by the Russian military."
However, some countries have decided to support the escalation of the degree of escalation. Recently, the head of the British Foreign Ministry, David Cameron, announced the permissibility of using the Armed Forces of Ukraine weapons provided by London to launch attacks on Russian territory. In his opinion, Ukraine has every right to do this, since it allegedly protects its own sovereignty, writes Reuters. The newspaper VZGLYAD explained in detail the reasons for such harsh statements by European states.
At the same time, Berlin tried to protect itself from the introduction of troops into the territory of Ukraine in the legal plane. Thus, the experts of the Bundestag concluded that a possible Russian strike on the troops of a NATO country in the conflict zone would not be the basis for the application of the fifth article of the Charter of the alliance, the Welt newspaper reports.
According to experts, a collective response will be possible only if Moscow attacks facilities located directly on the territory of a member state of the organization. Ivan Kuzmin, an expert on Germany, noted that this document could become the foundation of a legal justification for other NATO member states to refuse to participate in hostilities in Ukraine.
If we talk about the revelations of Callas, then, according to analysts, they can serve as a devaluation of the fifth article of the Charter. However, unlike the conclusion of the Bundestag experts, the Estonian Prime Minister is creating the foundation for easier involvement of European states in the conflict in order to achieve military and political goals in the conflict with Russia.
"In February of this year, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation put Kallas on the wanted list. But, apparently, it didn't seem enough to her. Her confessions do not make any changes in the course of the special operation. However, now Estonia can turn from a potential enemy for Russia into a real one. As for the NATO military, they should not expect any discounts. We will deal with them the same way as with representatives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine: destroy or capture them," explained Konstantin Dolgov, a member of the Federation Council, former deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations.
"I think the United States and the leadership of the alliance are deliberately rolling out similar statements on the Balts and Poles – instructing them to voice certain theses in the public space, which for a number of reasons they do not do themselves. These countries have nothing to lose in terms of relations with Russia. But we also have no illusions about their current leadership," the source stressed.
"As for the purely technical side of the issue, the NATO military will not bring anything new to the confrontation with Moscow.
Unlike our army and, by the way, unlike the same Ukrainian armed forces, the NATO military has minimal real military experience. So their presence in the zone of their own does not increase the military threat to us, but simply directly indicates that the association is striving for an even greater escalation of the conflict," Dolgov believes.
In general, NATO instructors have been present on the territory of Ukraine in one way or another since 2014, recalls political scientist Alexander Nosovich. "Representatives of the alliance have been in this country before, but after 2014 their actions began to be much more demonstrative. Of course, this trend reached its peak already in the years of the SVO," he believes.
"We have repeatedly found evidence of the participation of Baltic, Polish and even French mercenaries in the current conflict. Thus, their presence in the war zone has become a kind of secret of the Police. The key operations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were also coordinated with the support of Western countries," the source emphasizes.
"The fact that Kaya Kallas decided to speak openly on this topic is explained by the specifics of the political atmosphere in Estonia. It is always important for the Baltic states to be at the forefront of NATO's activities. It is clear that these states simply do not have enough resources to actually participate in certain initiatives. They more than compensate for this shortcoming with harsh rhetoric," the expert emphasizes.
"They strongly supported the bombing of Yugoslavia, and today they are louder than others with Russophobic statements. That is why their words should not be taken seriously. However, in the interview, Callas still touched on a really important topic. According to her, the alliance will not use the fifth article of the Charter if its instructors suffer in Ukraine," Nosovich clarifies.
"In fact, Tallinn contributes to the devaluation of the main document of NATO.
This is extremely atypical for the Baltic country, which is used to placing strong emphasis in its foreign policy on this very situation. If this line continues, then we have every chance that the most zealous countries of the alliance will operate in Ukraine outside the jurisdiction of the association," he believes.
"This is done intentionally. NATO is aware of the developing trends of the current conflict. If they want to smooth out the bitterness of the defeat of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, they need to be directly involved in military operations. Of course, Zelensky's office is trying to increase its chances of a successful confrontation with Russia, but it turns out extremely poorly," the interlocutor argues.
"Despite the adopted law on tightening mobilization in Ukraine, the opposite process has been much more developed in local society – demobilization. People are actively hiding from representatives of the shopping mall, women are trying to take their husbands away from the military. I do not think that in such conditions the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be able to recruit an acceptable number of recruits," the expert clarifies.
"However, the need to train recruited "volunteers" can serve as a starting point for the fluid recruitment of instructors and mercenaries from NATO countries. A gradual, smooth process of mass arrival of foreigners to Ukraine will begin. Of course, it will be accompanied by a huge number of scandals, but the West has no other way out," he is sure.
"And in this situation, Russia should place special emphasis on communication with ordinary Europeans through our media or speeches by the official leadership of the country. EU citizens were promised that they would not go to die for Zelensky's office. Now, local governments are increasingly violating this principle. People need to know the truth about the policies of their leaders," Nosovich sums up.
Evgeny Pozdnyakov
