All Eyes On Washington: What Can Ukraine Expect From NATO Summit Today? TURAN's Interview With Top State Dept Official

State Department's Liam Wasley, Director of the Office of European Security and Political Affairs at the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, speaks to TURAN's Washington correspondent Alex Raufoglu on NATO's comprehensive defense and deterrence plan for Ukraine, forthcoming announcements of a package of support, as well as the country's progress towards membership and other challenges.

Question: Let's start off with the latest Russian missile attack on Kyiv Children's Hospital, which took place literally hours before the NATO Summit began. How is Russia even able to successfully attack Kyiv, despite all of the Western weapons that Ukraine possesses, which, we thought, were supposed to prevent these kinds of attacks in the first place? What is your take on it?

Answer:  First of all, the attack on the Children's Hospital was an atrocity, it was a horrible thing. And our hearts go out to the Ukrainian people. No one should ever have to see what they have seen. Vladimir Putin did that. What he is, he is afraid of the unity and the strength that this summit is demonstrating in the Alliance. He wanted to have to disrupt the conversations that we're having here. So that is why that happened. What's going to happen here is that right now, the allies are meeting and they're endorsing one of the most extensive defense and deterrence plans that we have seen, certainly since in the Cold War, that will guarantee every inch of Alliance territory.

What we're going to see tomorrow is that the Alliance sits down with President Zelenskyy and they will announce a package of support — political, economic, military — for Ukraine that is unparalleled. One of the key elements is that NATO is going to initiate a Special Command that will be responsible for the training and equipping and the logistics, and providing for all the long term needs for the Ukrainian military. So, this will be an expansion over what current allies have done, and will provide a long term and a very well coordinated supply for Ukraine. They're also announcing a pledge that will address some of the issues that we've had with resourcing Ukrainian needs. So, allies are committing to providing $40 billion a year for the foreseeable future, so that Ukraine knows it's got the resources coming in to buy weapons, to get logistics, to get the support it needs to protect its own people. And then the final element of that is we're setting up a Senior Representative office in Kyiv that will be working directly with Ukrainian authorities to make sure that the other elements of this program are all working and that we are responding to Ukrainian demand signals.

The other thing that SACEUR (NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe) announced this morning is that the war in Ukraine has broken all of the models for modern conflict and we need to be learning from this. So they're setting up an organization that will be based in Poland. There will be an alliance of Ukrainian organizations so that we are benefiting from each other's experiences — they're getting the benefits of our innovation, we're getting the benefits of their battlefield experience. The other thing is that — where the Ukrainians are going to feel the difference right now —the Secretary [Blinken] announced that as we speak, F-16s are on their way to Ukraine: there will be F-16 flying over Ukraine in defense of Ukraine this summer. The President also announced yesterday that five new interceptor batteries are on their way to Ukraine. That will provide the protection for the skies that hopefully will avoid future moments like what we saw in Kyiv this week.

They are also addressing the need for the Ukrainians have the ammunition, the missiles, and the interceptors that they need. So, there has been an all in alliance effort to get them what they need this summer to perfect their airspace, and to give them the tools that they need to protect their own sovereignty and to prevail in this conflict.

Q.  So what I'm hearing is that, if Putin's intention was to jeopardize the Washington summit, he failed — is that what you think?

A.  I think Vladimir Putin has misjudged the Alliance from the very beginning. Every time he thought he could divide us, that he could create a moment that would create tension, it actually just brought us together. And I think that the Kyiv incident, the strike on innocent children, a cancer hospital, just really brought home to all allies what is at stake in Ukraine, and why it's important to back the Ukrainians

Q.  Some of the concerns that I keep hearing from my Ukrainian colleagues is that, when it comes to attacks coming from Russia, they usually use the weapons that contain components coming from NATO countries. Will Russia still be able to access those components from NATO members, even after this Summit?

A.    I think we need to be clear who is fueling the Russian war machine. 90% of the semiconductors that are in Russian weapons are coming out of China. 70% of the machine tools that are being used are coming from China. You have North Korea and Iran providing their technology, their weapons, their munitions. So, the Russian defense base would grind to a halt without the active support of China and North Korea. So, as an alliance, and as partners, we all need to be focused on the threat that poses to all of us, and to work hard to disrupt that.

Q.  And just to clarify, the news that you just shared about creating a new Special Representative office in Kyiv — did you mean an office of NATO, or of the U.S. government?

A. No, it's a NATO Special Representative that will be based there. NATO had an office there, and this is going to enhance that. There will be a senior civilian who will have responsibility to the Secretary General in Brussels and to interface directly with the most senior levels of the government in Kyiv to make sure that what we're doing, actually is addressing Ukrainian needs. And in the short term, and their long term goals of integrating very quickly.

Q. I wanna now move to the question of membership.

A. Okay.

Q. We keep hearing from Ukraine that you guys are doing some great things, but why can't you do it faster? The Secretary of State and other U.S. officials are using the metaphor of "a bridge" when it comes to the membership question. But every bridge does start with the blueprint. The question is, by referring to that metaphor, do you mean that the U.S. government has a clear plan, a strategy on it, or?

A.   All good bridges have two ends. So we're committed to making sure that what we are building now will allow Ukrainian integration into the Alliance to be as quick and complete and deep as it possibly can, and as fast as it possibly can. The decision on membership is one that we make as an alliance: 32 sovereign states, all have to agree. In Bucharest, we committed that Ukraine's future is in NATO. We reiterated that later in Vilnius. This year the declaration, I hope, will have very, very strong language about Ukraine's strong trajectory in that direction, and its positive progress towards membership.

Q.  I have one more topic, which is about "the limits".

A. Okay.

Q We hear that from Ukrainian officials, average Ukrainians, as they weep asking: who do you think benefits from the limits that are imposed on Ukraine when it comes to using American weapons inside Russia? If Russia is able to maintain its air force system, which allows them to keep attacking Ukraine, what is at stake here for the United States Government, and why limit Ukraine's ability to defend itself against Russia?

A.   I don't want to say anything that will be useful for the people in Moscow. What I will focus on is the flexibility that, as we saw in June when President Zelenskyy noted the attacks that were pounding Kharkiv, we worked very quickly with him to make sure that they had the tools, they had the permissions, they had the scope to do what they needed. This is an active conversation. We are about making sure that Ukraine has the freedom of action, and the weaponry, to protect their interests and to deter Russian attacks. I just want to emphasize that this is a cooperative, flexible, and forward looking process that we are fully engaged in with the Ukrainians

Q. But aren't you becoming predictable for Putin when he knows that he can attack and get away with - if you limit Ukraine's capabilities to fight back?

A. I don't want to get into wordsmithing that he might be able to find useful. What I will say is that we have worked with Ukrainians to provide the flexibility that they need to address the threats that are attacking their territory.
Q.    My very last question on this.

A Okay.

Q. Still, is this issue under consideration, when it comes to lifting those limits? When is it a good time to move forward on that? I know the U.S. has done our good stuff since last year, you know, a lots of so-called "red lines" have been crossed... Is it even being discussed here?

A. There is no one limit. This is a conversation that has very much to do with that the Ukrainians are full partners with us in finding the best way forward.