MADRID/KYIV: Nato on Wednesday branded Russia the most "direct threat" to allied security after Moscow's attack on Ukraine and vowed to modernise the beleaguered Ukrainian military, saying it stood four-square with Kyiv in "the heroic defence of their country".
Completing a summit dominated by the geopolitical upheaval caused by the attack, Nato formally invited Sweden and Finland to join the alliance and pledged to reinforce combat-ready and rapid-reaction forces on its eastern flank, closest to Russia.
President Joe Biden announced additional US land, air and sea deployments across Europe, including a permanent army headquarters with accompanying battalion in Poland, the first full-time US deployment on Nato's eastern fringes.
As the 30 national Nato leaders were meeting in Madrid, Russian forces intensified attacks in Ukraine, including missile strikes on the southern Mykolaiv region close to front lines.
The mayor of Mykolaiv city said a Russian missile had killed at least three people in a residential building there, while Moscow said its forces had hit what it called a training base for foreign mercenaries in the region.
The governor of eastern Luhansk province reported "fighting everywhere" in the battle around the hilltop city of Lysychansk, which Russian troops are trying to encircle as they pursue a bid to seize all of Ukraine's heavily industrialised east.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated to Nato leaders that Kyiv needed more weapons and money, and faster, to start countering Russia's huge edge in firepower, and warned that the Kremlin's ambitions did not stop at Ukraine.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba later praised Nato's "clear-eyed stance" on Russia, adding: "An equally strong and active position on Ukraine will help to protect the Euro-Atlantic security and stability."
A Nato communique called Russia the "most significant and direct threat to the allies' security and stability", a nod to the precipitous deterioration in relations with Russia - earlier classified as a "strategic partner" - since the attack.
Nato agreed a package of support aimed at modernising Ukraine's military. "We stand in full solidarity with the government and the people of Ukraine in the heroic defence of their country," the communique said.#
"We are sending a strong message to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin: 'You will not win'," said Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, the summit's host.
The US-led alliance said it would also deploy more "robust in-place combat-ready forces" on its eastern flank, scaled up from existing battlegroups to brigade-size units.
Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg had announced ahead of the summit that the alliance planned to increase the number of troops on high alert by seven-fold to more than 700,000.
Zelensky, in a video link-up with Nato, said Ukraine needed $5 billion per month for its defence and protection. "This not a war being waged by Russia against only Ukraine. This is a war for the right to dictate conditions in Europe - for what the future world order will be like," he said. . -- Reuters
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