NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg expects that leaders will agree to increase their force presence on the eastern flank.
He acknowledged his belief during a press conference Wednesday that leaders within NATO, who will meet in Brussels on Thursday, will agree to deploy four new NATO battle groups to Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. It would bring the total number of battle groups along its eastern flank to eight from the Baltic to Black seas.
“I expect allies will agree to provide additional support, including cybersecurity assistance,” he explained, “as well as equipment to help Ukraine protect against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats.”
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The allies will also likely agree to help nearby countries at risk of further Russian aggression, mainly Georgia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
President Joe Biden is among the leaders who will be attending Thursday’s emergency meeting of NATO heads of state and government to determine how they can fortify the alliance’s response to the war in Ukraine. The president, who called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” last week, warned Monday that the Russian leader is considering using biological and chemical weapons.
“Now he’s talking about new false flags he’s setting up including asserting that we in America have biological as well as chemical weapons in Europe — simply not true,” Biden explained. “They are also suggesting that Ukraine has biological and chemical weapons in Ukraine. That’s a clear sign he’s considering using both of those.”
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“I think it’s a real threat,” Biden said of a possible chemical attack Wednesday morning before leaving for Europe.
A senior NATO military official said that as many as 40,000 Russian troops have been killed, wounded, taken prisoner, or are missing, while somewhere between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
