NATO Summit Kicks Off Amid Ukraine Crisis

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, front right, looks toward President Joe Biden, front left, at a group photo during a NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium, on March 24, 2022.Thibault Camus/AP Photo

President Joe Biden and Western allies convened in Brussels, Belgium on Thursday for the first of three summits meant to address what NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg described as “the most serious security crisis in a generation.”

The Western allies met at NATO headquarters in Brussels, where they posed for a group photo before heading inside for closed-door talks expected to last several hours.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the meetings, Stoltenberg said the discussions would focus on the alliance’s support to Ukraine in the context of the Russian invasion, which on Thursday hit its one month mark.

“We will address this crisis together and address the threat that means for Ukraine, for NATO, and for the whole international rules-based order,” Stoltenberg said.

NATO heads of state pose for a group photo during an extraordinary NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium, on March 24, 2022. Thibault Camus/AP Photo

NATO leaders will also discuss the need to bolster the alliance’s deterrence and defense over the longer term, Stoltenberg added, with the first step in this regard being the establishment of four new battlegroups on NATO’s eastern flank. The battlegroups will be stationed in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia.

He called for NATO leaders to ramp up defense spending and praised commitments already made by some to boost investment. Germany is notable in this regard, with its leaders having already pledged to invest $110 billion in defense this year while committing to raise defense spending to at least 2 percent of GDP.

“We are the strongest Alliance in the world. And as long as we stand together, we are also safe,” Stoltenberg said.

Asked by reporters about the mental state of Russian President Vladimir Putin in light of rumors that some from his inner circle are considering defecting, the NATO chief declined to speculate, saying only that Putin had made a “big mistake” by ordering the invasion.

“President Putin has made a big mistake and that is to launch a war, to wage war, against an independent sovereign nation. He has underestimated the strength of the Ukrainian people,” Stoltenberg said.

Members of the Ukrainian Territorial Defence Forces examine new armament, including NLAW anti-tank systems and other portable anti-tank grenade launchers, in Kyiv, on March 9, 2022. Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images

Military analysts have said Russia’s offensive has faced numerous setbacks and has sustained heavy casualties amid fierce resistance from Ukrainian forces.

NATO estimated on Wednesday that between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed so far in the war. Russia has not updated its official casualty count since saying on March 2 that 498 service members had been killed and 1,597 wounded.

But an article on the site of tabloid paper Komsomolskaya Pravda, captured by a web archive tool before it was taken down, quoted the Russian defense ministry as saying 9,861 Russian servicemen had been killed and 16,153 wounded.

Russia calls the conflict a “special military operation” and has imposed a draconian law that threatens punishment of up to 15 years behind bars for calling its actions in Ukraine a “war” or an “invasion.”

Damage at the Retroville shopping mall, a day after it was shelled by Russian forces in a residential district in the northwest of Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 21, 2022. Fadel Senna/AFP via Getty Images

There have been numerous arrests of anti-war protesters in Russia, with monitoring group OVD-Info estimating that, as of Thursday, at least 5,510 people had been detained for protests in 77 cities.

British intelligence said Thursday that Russian forces have almost certainly suffered thousands of casualties in the invasion and that Moscow is now looking to mobilize reservists, conscripts, foreign mercenaries, and private military companies “to replace these considerable losses.”

Reporters asked Stoltenberg whether NATO would consider it an attack on one of its members if Russia uses chemical weapons in Ukraine, given the potential for chemical agents to spread over a larger area and potentially affecting a NATO member state.

Stoltenberg said he would not speculate beyond noting that any use of chemical weapons would “fundamentally change the nature of the conflict,” that the use of such arms would be a violation of international law and would have “widespread and severe consequences.”

“This will be a catastrophe for the people of Ukraine, but of course there is also a risk that we can see the spread of chemical agents also into NATO territory,” the alliance chief said, adding that NATO stands ready to react to any type of attack on one of its members.

Biden said several days ago that there were “clear signs” that an increasingly desperate Putin was planning to launch a chemical attack in Ukraine.

Putin’s “back is against the wall and 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. I guarantee you,” Biden said at an event on Monday.

On Thursday, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed that the ministry “continues to study documents about the United States’ secret military biological activities in Ukraine,” Russian state-backed media Tass reports.

The war in Ukraine has driven 3.7 million people from their homes, according to the United Nations.

Besides Thursday’s extraordinary NATO summit, Brussels is hosting a gathering of the Group of Seven industrialized nations and a summit of the 27 members of the European Union.

Biden is scheduled to attend all three meetings and plans to hold a news conference at the end of the day.