While confronting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Sunday over the military alliance’s response to Russia’s deadly and unprovoked war on Ukraine, NBC News anchor Chuck Todd asked the NATO chief “how long” they will “stand by and watch” amid Russian attacks on civilians.
President Joe Biden is scheduled to travel to Europe this week to take part in a series of emergency summits over the month-long war in Ukraine, which could include world leaders unveiling a new series of punitive measures against Russia. At the same time, while Russia increasingly targets Ukrainian civilians, NATO has pulled some items that Ukraine wants—specifically a no-fly zone—off the table for now as it looks to avoid direct confrontation with Russia.
With Turkey now trying to mediate peace negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow as the war enters its fourth week, Stoltenberg didn’t express much optimism that a diplomatic resolution was close to being struck.
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“So first of all, we have to remember that this is President Putin’s war, and he can end it now. And that's what all NATO allies call on Russia to do. Then, of course, we welcome all efforts to find a negotiated, peaceful solution,” he told NBC’s Meet the Press. “I visited Turkey a few days ago, met with President Erdoğan, and Turkey is doing some real efforts to try to facilitate support, talks between Russia and Ukraine. But it’s far too early to say whether these or the talks can lead to any concrete outcome.”
Elsewhere on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that while he is “ready for negotiations” with Putin, he warned it “would mean that this is a third world war” if the peace talks failed. Additionally, Zelensky said Ukraine’s sovereignty can’t be on the table and that if Ukraine “were a NATO member, a war wouldn’t have started.” (Zelensky, however, has hinted as recently as last week that he would drop Ukraine’s ambitions to join NATO anytime soon.)
Back on Meet the Press, Todd pressed Stoltenberg on whether he would offer more assistance to Ukraine as Russia ramps up its attacks against the country’s population.
“We’ve seen an increased targeting of civilians, Mr. Secretary General, in Ukraine,” the moderator said. “How long can NATO stand by and watch Russia target civilians without finding a way to help more when it comes to the Ukrainian resistance?”
“NATO allies are stepping up their support to Ukraine, partly by delivering military support, humanitarian support, and billions of financial support to Ukraine,” Stoltenberg responded. “And then, of course, we imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia to ensure that President Putin is paying a high price for this totally unjustified, senseless war against an independent sovereign nation, Ukraine.”
He added: “And let me also remind you of the fact that NATO allies have actually trained and supported Ukrainian armed forces for years, trained tens of thousands of Ukrainian forces, Special Operation Force, Command and Control, Logistics. And all of this proves extremely important now. These troops are on the frontline fighting against the invading Russian troops. So the support allies have provided over many years proves now to have been extremely important.”
Later in the interview, Todd again pushed the NATO leader on whether additional Russian aggression in Ukraine would escalate the alliance’s military involvement.
“Russia’s use of chemical weapons, would that be considered, though, an escalation on his part that would make NATO rethink?” Todd wondered.
“Our core responsibility is to protect 1 billion people living in 30 different NATO-allied countries. And we are doing that by increasing the presence in the Eastern part of the alliance,” Stoltenberg answered. “I also believe that, regardless of how this conflict now ends, we are faced with a new reality, a new security reality, where Russia more openly contests core values for our security and are willing to use military force to achieve its objectives. And therefore, we need to reset our deterrence and defense.”
The Meet the Press host later added that it sounded like the NATO chief doesn’t “have an answer yet” on whether chemical weapons would represent a red line for the organization, prompting Stoltenberg to note it “would be a blatant and brutal violation of international law” for Russia to unleash a chemical attack.
“So this is something we take extremely serious,” he continued. ”But at the same time, again, we are not, we are very much aware that we need to act in a way that prevents this conflict from going—from being a very bloody, ugly, horrific conflict in Ukraine to something that turns out to be a full-fledged war between NATO and Russia in Europe and potentially involving, of course, the United States directly.”
Todd’s pointed grilling of Stoltenberg on the potential of NATO escalating its military involvement in the Ukraine-Russia war comes as Beltway reporters have come under criticism for seemingly urging the White House to provide Ukraine with more overt military support, which would ostensibly draw the U.S. into a direct armed conflict with Russia.
