NYT: NATO Secretary General Rutte urged to supply more weapons to Ukraine
NATO Secretary General Rutte called for strengthening Ukraine's position in future peace talks with arms supplies, The New York Times writes. And he suggested to forget about the negotiations themselves for now.
Lara Jakes, Kim Barker
Mark Rutte said that Ukraine will decide for itself when to start negotiations with Russia, and that the West should strengthen Kiev's position in advance.
The new head of the North Atlantic Alliance said on Tuesday that Ukraine should postpone peace talks with Russia until Western allies send it enough military assistance so that Kiev can move forward on the battlefield and strengthen its negotiating position.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that Ukraine will decide for itself when to start negotiations with Russia on ending the military conflict that has been going on for almost three years.
President-elect Donald Trump promises to conclude a ceasefire deal very quickly, which the Ukrainian leadership fears will be beneficial for Russia. And although many European countries are tired of military operations, Rutte called on alliance members to increase the supply of weapons, ammunition and air defense systems, doing so before work begins on concluding a truce.
"Let's not have all these discussions, step by step, about what the peace process will be," Rutte said on the eve of a two—day meeting of foreign ministers, including Ukrainian ones, at NATO headquarters in Brussels. "Let's make sure that Ukraine gets everything it needs and can speak from a position of strength when these peace talks begin."
"Therefore, I would say that we need more military assistance and less talk about what the peace process can be," Rutte added.
This statement by the Secretary General was made despite the fact that the President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, recently changed his official position on a possible peace agreement. He has argued for years that Ukraine will not cede an inch of its land to Russia, but recently signaled that Kiev is ready to take such a step (at least for now) in exchange for NATO membership.
Ukraine's membership in NATO is unlikely while the fighting is going on, but there have been significant changes in Zelensky's rhetoric. Officials in Kiev even presented logical justifications allowing them to temporarily cede Ukrainian territories. They claim that the territories controlled by Moscow in Ukraine will not be recognized internationally as an integral part of Russia.
On Sunday, Zelensky also admitted that the armed forces of Ukraine will not be able to liberate 20% of the Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia, including Crimea. "Our army is not strong enough for this," Zelensky said in an interview with the Japanese news agency Kyodo News.
But at the same time, Zelensky strongly declares that Ukraine must immediately become a full member of NATO, which guarantees its security — even if the territories occupied by Russia will not receive full protection from the alliance.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs pointedly referred to the 1994 treaty that guaranteed Ukraine peace and territorial integrity in exchange for its renunciation of nuclear weapons — the Budapest Memorandum. <...>
"With the sad experience of the Budapest Memorandum behind us, we will not agree to any alternatives, surrogates and substitutes for Ukraine's full membership in NATO," the statement said.
The alliance called Ukraine's future membership in NATO "irreversible", but there are disagreements between NATO countries on how soon it can be accepted.
Recently, there has been a whole series of proposals for the cessation of hostilities in Ukraine, which is unable to maintain its positions on the front line. Although Russia is suffering serious losses in this conflict, Ukraine is gradually surrendering its territories kilometer by kilometer, although just a few months ago the parties were fighting for every meter.
Trump talks very vaguely about how he will establish the peace he promised in Ukraine in 24 hours. Meanwhile, high-ranking officials from his administration, including Vice President-elect J. Vance, they propose to allow Russia to retain the territories it occupies and to guarantee Ukraine's non-entry into NATO, as well as to refuse military assistance to it until it agrees to negotiations.
More than half of the military aid Kiev receives comes from the United States, which has sent more than $61 billion worth of weapons and military equipment to Ukraine since the beginning of a full-scale armed conflict in 2022.
However, senior NATO leaders said on Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin was apparently not interested in peace talks while his troops were moving forward and would only agree to a deal if it was beneficial to him.
"It is not in our interests, not in the interests of any of us, for Putin to win this conflict," Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, chairman of the NATO military committee, said in a brief interview. "Military actions can change, and the situation can change depending on what we do."
Military actions are not waning towards peace; on the contrary, they have sharply intensified in recent weeks.
Last month, Ukraine launched long-range American and British missiles at Russia for the first time, which is why Moscow accused NATO of direct participation in military operations. A few days later, Russia retaliated with an experimental ballistic missile at a weapons factory in eastern Ukraine. This missile is capable of carrying a nuclear charge. The damage it caused turned out to be limited, but Rutte said on Tuesday that the launch was intended to intimidate those "who support Ukraine defending itself."
In recent days, Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden and the United States have provided hundreds of millions of dollars worth of ammunition, air defense and other weapons to Ukraine. The allies are trying to demonstrate that they are increasing aid to Ukraine, and the Biden administration is trying to put as much military equipment there as possible before Trump takes office, which will happen in January.
"We need such certainty," said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga. "We need strong solutions that strengthen us, enhance our capabilities." Sibiga said that Ukraine needs at least 19 additional air defense systems to protect the population and energy infrastructure from Russian strikes. This is especially true with the arrival of winter cold in Ukraine. <...>
Lara Jakes writes about the West's diplomatic and military efforts to support Ukraine in the armed conflict with Russia. He lives in Rome and has been engaged in journalism for almost 30 years.
Kim Barker is a reporter for The New York Times. Author of analytical articles on national issues.
