NATO countries gather as Ukraine war overshadows Europe; Russian attack on shopping mall kills at least 15 people

The NATO military alliance is all set to meet in Madrid, Spain, on Tuesday, with the war in Ukraine at the top of the agenda.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has already previewed new moves by the alliance, announcing on Monday that it would increase its rapid response force and will bolster its battlegroups in eastern Europe.

“At the summit we will strengthen our forward defences. We will enhance our battlegroups in the eastern part of the alliance up to brigade levels. We will transform the NATO response force and increase the number of high-readiness forces to well over 300,000,” Stoltenberg told a press conference.

Stoltenberg said the moves reflect that “allies consider Russia as the most significant and direct threat to our security.” The summit comes as Russia makes slow but significant headway in eastern Ukraine, seizing more of the Donbas as fierce fighting in the region continues.

In addition, Russian forces have attacked several major cities in recent days, including the capital Kyiv. An attack on a shopping mall yesterday killed at least 15 people and wounded 59 others. The attack was condemned by G-7 leaders meeting in Germany.

NATO has other issues to deal with, the largest of which perhaps being Turkey’s ongoing opposition to Finland’s and Sweden’s application to join the group. Stoltenberg said Monday that “the security concerns of all allies must be taken into account as part of the NATO accession process. Turkiye’s concerns are legitimate and must be addressed.”

— Holly Ellyatt

Russian missile strikes on a Ukrainian shopping mall killed at least 15 people and wounded 59 others, Ukraine’s emergency services said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier said on the Telegram messaging platform that more than 1,000 people were inside at the time of the rocket attack, NBC News reported.

“This is not an off-target missile strike, this is a calculated Russian strike — exactly at this shopping mall,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address.

— Chelsea Ong

G-7 leaders condemned a Russian missile strike on a Ukrainian shopping mall that resulted in the death of innocent civilians.

“We stand united with Ukraine in mourning the innocent victims of this brutal attack. Indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians constitute a war crime,” the leaders wrote in a joint statement.

“Russian President Putin and those responsible will be held to account,” the statement added.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging platform that the strike on the mall in Kremenchuk had “no strategic value” and was not a site affiliated with Ukrainian armed forces.

The Kremlin has previously denied that it targets civilians.

“We will continue to provide financial, humanitarian as well as military support for Ukraine, for as long as it takes. We will not rest until Russia ends its cruel and senseless war on Ukraine,” the G-7 leaders added.

 — Amanda Macias

Turkey’s president says he will do “whatever is necessary for our country’s rights and interests” at the NATO summit in Spain.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday he’d provide documents and visuals on “terror groups,” including Kurdish militant groups and the network of exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen blamed for a 2016 attempted coup in Turkey, to show his counterparts the “hypocrisy” on terror.

Ankara has objected to Sweden’s and Finland’s bids to join NATO, citing what it considers to be a lax approach to groups Turkey deems national security threats, including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and its Syrian extension.

Turkey has demanded the two Nordic countries extradite wanted individuals and lift arms restrictions imposed after Turkey’s 2019 military incursion into northeast Syria.

“We will tell them clearly that it is not possible to expect a different attitude from Turkey unless this picture changes,” he said after a cabinet meeting in Ankara.

— Associated Press

National security adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed that the U.S. is in the final stages of preparing a security package for Ukraine that includes advanced air defense capabilities. 

“We do intend to finalize a package that includes advanced medium- and long-range air defense capabilities for the Ukrainians, along with some other items that are of urgent need, including ammunition for artillery and counterbattery radar systems,” Sullivan told reporters on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in Krun, Germany.

“I won’t get into the details of the system. I’ll wait until the contract actually gets done,” he said. He added that President Joe Biden informed his G-7 counterparts and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the upcoming security assistance package.

The U.S. has committed $6.1 billion in defense aid since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.

 — Amanda Macias

The NATO military alliance will increase the number of its forces at high readiness to over 300,000 from the current number of 40,000, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday.

“We will transform the NATO Response Force and increase the number of our high readiness forces to well over 300,000,” said at a press conference on Monday, ahead of a NATO summit in Madrid that begins on Tuesday.

The summit would see NATO strengthen its forward defenses and enhance its battlegroups in the eastern part of the alliance, he said. “We will also boost our ability to reinforce in crisis and conflict,” he added. It would do this with:

• More pre-positioned equipment, and stockpiles of military supplies.
• More forward-deployed capabilities, like air defense.
• Strengthened command and control.
• And upgraded defense plans, with forces pre-assigned to defend specific allies.

The NATO Response Force is a high-readiness force comprising land, air, sea and special forces units that are capable of being deployed quickly. The force currently comprises around 40,000 troops.

NATO’s announcements come as the military alliance tries to best assist Ukraine in repelling the Russian invasion, with various NATO members sending arms to Kyiv, but trying to avoid a direct confrontation with nuclear power Russia.

NATO’s summit will see its 30 member countries meet, as well as representatives from its allies. Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and the Republic of Korea will join the summit for the first time, and Georgia and the European Union will also take part.

— Holly Ellyatt

The G-7 — which comprises the world’s most wealthy nations of the U.S., U.K., Canada, France, Italy, Germany and Japan — has published a statement in which they affirm their continued support for Ukraine and committed to further punishing Russia on the economic front.

“We will continue to provide financial, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support and stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes,” the G-7 said in the communique on Monday.

The groups said it was committed to sustaining and intensifying international economic and political pressure on President Putin’s regime and what it called “its enablers” in Belarus, depriving Russia of the economic means to persist in its war of aggression against Ukraine.

The targeted use of coordinated sanctions would, the group said, continue “for as long as necessary.” Sanctions imposed on Russia so far were, the leaders said, “in defence of the rules-based international order that Russia has so egregiously violated.” And there would be more sanctions, they noted.

“We will continue to explore new ways to isolate Russia from participating in the global market and crack down on evasion. We are determined to reduce Russia’s revenues, including from gold. We will also continue to target evasion and backfilling activities,” the G-7 said.

It added that it would further reduce Russia’s export revenues by taking “appropriate steps to further reduce dependency on Russian energy,” and “further restrict Russia’s access to key industrial inputs, services, and technologies produced by our economies, particularly those supporting Russia’s armament industrial base and technology sector.”

Finally, the G-7 added that it will increase the costs of Russia’s war on Ukraine by imposing targeted sanctions on those responsible for war crimes, exercising illegitimate authority in Ukraine, and those that it said were “standing behind Russia’s engagement in efforts to increase global food insecurity by stealing and exporting Ukrainian grain or otherwise profit illegitimately from the war.”

The group said it would assist the global economy and would take action to help mitigate spillover effects from the sanctions, especially relating to humanitarian and other basic needs, and vulnerable populations.

— Holly Ellyatt