NATO Ministers To Focus On Russian Attacks, And Impacts Of The War

The NATO Foreign Ministers in Romania today will focus on Russia’s missile attacks in Ukraine and their impacts, Julianne Smith United States Permanent Representative to NATO said on Monday, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

“We will spend some time, as you might imagine, talking about the attacks and the uptick in attacks that we’ve seen on critical infrastructure inside Ukraine,” Ambassador Smith said. “Obviously this is a tactic designed by the Russians to leave the Ukrainian people in the cold and in the dark as winter sets in inside Ukraine.”

Smith was speaking to reporters during a special online briefing organized by the State Department's Brussels Media Hub. According to her, allies will discuss ways to continue providing humanitarian, economic and security support to Ukraine.

Included in the talks are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova and Georgia, Ukrainian neighbors and “NATO partners that are experiencing firsthand the direct impact” of Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, she said.

Smith went on to add: “Allies understand fundamentally what’s at stake in Ukraine. This is obviously about Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, but it’s also about the values that we hold dear. And I think ministers and certainly heads of state represented across this Alliance understand what’s at stake and are determined to continue supporting Ukraine for as long as it takes.”

Asked by TURAN's correspondent whether Russia’s threat in the South Caucasus was increasing, Smith said, she would leave it to the people of the region to give their firsthand impressions.

In the meantime, she said, "we are increasingly thinking about ways that we can offer our support to the people of Georgia. We’ve been focused on Georgia and Russia’s activities and actions there ever since 2008 when Russia went into Georgia. They still have a presence, as you well know, in Georgia."

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.