Tens of thousands of NATO troops have been put on high alert and nearly 40,000 troops are deployed on the eastern flank under direct Alliance control.
This was announced by the Secretary General of the Pact, Jens Stoltenberg, before the start of today’s extraordinary meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.
He noted that the participants of the meeting will discuss the long-term consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the need for changes in the work of the alliance. According to him, the allies are trying to prevent the war from going beyond Ukraine.
At least seven people were killed and three injured in a Russian attack on a school in Ukraine.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that Ukraine has a legitimately elected and sovereign leadership and that NATO is providing support so that it can defend itself.
According to him, the United States has repeatedly confirmed that Art. 5 of the Washington Joint Defense Treaty is inviolable.