sadly what we have warned against for months has come to pass despite all calls on russia to change course and tireless efforts to seek a diplomatic solution peace on our continent has been shattered we now have war in europe on a scale and of an of a type we thought belonged to history we have just finished a meeting of the north atlantic council to discuss the situation the council also addressed the request by bulgaria the czech republic estonia latvia lithuania poland romania and slovakia to hold urgent consultations under article 4 of the washington treaty this is a grave moment for the security of europe russia's unjustified and unprovoked attack on ukraine's on ukraine is putting countless innocent lives at risk with air and missile attacks ground forces and special forces from multiple directions targeting military infrastructure and major urban centers this is a deliberate cold-blooded and long-planned invasion despite its litany of lies denials and disinformation the kremlin's intentions are clear for the world to see russia's leaders bear full responsibility for their reckless actions and the lives lost nato allies condemn russia's invasion of ukraine in the strongest possible terms it is a blatant violation of international law an act of aggression against a sovereign independent and peaceful country and a serious threat to euro-atlantic security we call on russia to immediately seize its military action we draw its forces from ukraine and choose diplomacy we fully support ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and ukraine's right to self defense russia is using force to try to rewrite history and deny ukraine its free and independent path nato's core task is to protect and defend all allies there must be no room for miscalculation or misunderstanding an attack on one will be regarded as an attack on all this is our collective security guarantee today the north atlantic council decided to activate our defence plans at request of our top military commander general todd walters this is a prudent and defensive step to protect and shield allied nations during this crisis and it will enable us to deploy capabilities and forces including the nato response force to where them are needed in response to russia's massive military buildup we have already strengthened our collective defense on land at sea and in the air in the last weeks allies from north america and europe have deployed thousands or more troops to the eastern part of the alliance and placed more on standby we have over 100 jets at high alert protecting our airspace and more than 120 allied ships at sea from the high north to the mediterranean all this shows that our collected defense commitment article 5 is ironclad we will continue to do whatever is necessary to shield the alliance from aggression i have called a virtual summit of nato leaders tomorrow to address the way forward russia is now facing severe costs and consequences imposed by the whole international community the kremlin's aim is to re-establish its sphere of influence rip up the global rules that have kept us all safe for decades and subvert the values that we hold there this is the new normal for our security peace cannot be taken for granted freedom and democracy are contested by authoritarian regimes and strategic competition is on the rise we must respond with renewed resolve and even stronger unity north america and europe together in nato we are an alliance of 30 democracies standing as one we will protect our people and our values democracy will always prevail over autocracy freedom will always prevail over oppression and then i'm ready to take your questions we'll go to interfax ukraine thank you uh interface ukrainian irena summer uh secretary general we all know that nato will not fight for ukraine but don't you think it's time for nato to build anti-hitler sorry anti-putin coalition thank you nato stands in solidarity with ukraine and the nato allies are imposing are imposing severe costs on russia for the reckless invasion of ukraine nato allies in close coordination with the european union and other partners all the world are now imposing severe economic sanctions on russia to demonstrate that we follow up on what we said and that is that it will be a high price for russia to pay nato allies have also very long periods of time provided support practical support military support to ukraine and helped them to build a much stronger much better equip much better trained armed force today than the ukraine had in 2014 and i would like to recognize the the professionalism and the bravery of the ukrainian men and print women in uniform who are now standing up against the russian invasion so we continue to stand together condemning the russian full-scale invasion of ukraine and allies stand together also in sending a message that we will never accept the brutal violation of international law that we see taking place as russia now invades ukraine we'll go to bloomberg do you have any information that shows that nato allies face a direct threat from from russia at the moment and would nato reconsider military intervention in ukraine thank you nato is the strongest alliance history and make no mistake we will defend and protect every ally against any attack and every inch of nato territory and that's the reason also we have increased our presence in the eastern part of the alliance with thousands partner more troops ships and planes over the last weeks to to send a very clear message to an attack on one ally will tweak the response from the whole alliance and we do so not to provoke a conflict but to prevent the conflict what we do is defensive it's prudent it's measured but it is necessary because we see the aggressive actions of russia against ukraine and therefore allies also have to make sure that there is no room for any misunderstanding about that russia can do anything like that against the nato allied country national public radio hi thank you terry schultz with npr and dw uh mr secretary general in the in the next statement um you say that we're deploying additional defensive land and air forces to the eastern part of the alliance additional maritime assets and increase the readiness of forces is this now today more forces being sent as a result of the fact that the invasion has now happened or are you there referring to what has already been done as as reinforcements i understand secure will now have the ability to assemble the vjtf without coming back to the knack for approval and finally are you still willing to sit down with president putin or other representatives of the russian government after this or are you suspending your offer to hold talks on other issues and the nato-russia council thank you this invasion doesn't come as a surprise we are warned against it for months and sadly what happened this morning during the night was something that allied security and intelligence services have predicted for a long time we have tried to prevent it by calling russia to engage in diplomatic efforts by telling russia that there will be severe costs economic sanctions if they invade ukraine further but what happened over the last hours what has happened over the last hours demonstrate that russia despite our diplomatic efforts and despite our clear messages of economic sanctions decided to once again invade ukraine but since we have been a warning against this for a long period of time we are also taking prudent uh measures to prepare ourselves and that's the reason why we over the last months and weeks have significantly increased the presence of nato troops in the eastern part of the alliance more land troops ground forces but also air and naval forces in the coming days and weeks they will come even more so we will further increase and we are increasing uh our presence in eastern part alliance and today we activated nato's defense plans that gives our military commanders um more authority to move forces uh and to deploy forces when needed and of course this could also be elements of the nato response force so we are ready we are adjusting our posture but what we do is defensive is measured and we don't see confrontation we want to prevent the conflict and any attack against any nato allied country well we have we have reached out to to to russia for weeks and months uh and uh and what we have seen is that the russian uh message has been that they actually have never taken this talks seriously because while we were trying to find a political solution they were planning for this invasion and while we were trying to find a political solution they were actually day by day week by week increasing their military press and readiness on the borders of ukraine and now the launch invasion so russia has shut the door to a political solution we regret that but that's sadly the reality which has severe and very serious consequences for the people of ukraine but also actually impacts the security for all of us and that's the reason why we step up our presence in the eastern part of the alliance [Music]
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