NATO foreign ministers are gathered in Brussels for crisis talks as Russia’s war on Ukraine intensifies and calls mount in Kyiv for a no-fly zone and some alliance members signal their willingness to explore all options to limit or end the week-old conflict.
Diplomatic language and financial and other sanctions have hardened amid mounting civilian and other casualties and huge refugee flows from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Live Briefing: Russia Invades Ukraine
Check out RFE/RL’s live briefing on Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and how Kyiv is fighting and the West is reacting. The briefing presents the latest developments and analysis, updated throughout the day.
“NATO is not part of the conflict,” alliance Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said ahead of the meeting. “We do not seek war, conflict with Russia. At the same time, we need to make sure there is no misunderstanding about our commitment to protect all allies.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken echoed that NATO “seeks no conflict” but is “ready for it.”
Multiple NATO members have said they are united against Russian aggression but expressed unwillingness to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, whose officials have pleaded for the move to allow them to counter more numerous Russian forces.
Ukraine neighbors NATO members Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland.
Blinken and Stoltenberg also noted the overnight Russian shelling and seizure of a Ukrainian nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhya, which embattled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called part of a strategy of “nuclear terrorism” by Putin.
As the NATO meeting convened, Zelenskiy warned from Kyiv that only a no-fly zone will “guarantee that Russia won’t bomb” Ukraine’s nuclear infrastructure.
Nuclear officials have said they have not detected any radiation leaks at Zaporizhzhya.
Zelenskiy adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told reporters in Kyiv that Russia was “fighting with a deliberate violation of all conventions, laws, and rules of war” and clearly “could not help knowing what threatens Ukraine and, frankly, the whole of Europe, with a large-scale tank attack directed against the Zaporozhzhya nuclear power plant.”
Stoltenberg condemned attacks on civilians and said those and the attack on Zaporizhzhya show “the recklessness of this war and the importance of ending it and the importance of Russia withdrawing all its troops and engaging in good faith in diplomatic efforts.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba this week pledged to raise the issue of a no-fly zone over Ukraine when he joins the NATO meeting.
NATO governments, including the United States, have suggested that is unlikely, as it could put their forces in direct conflict with Russia’s military.
On March 4, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte repeated that warning.
“I believe that all encouragements for NATO to get involved into the military conflict now are irresponsible,” said Simonyte, whose country shares a nearly 300-kilometer with Russia and has consistently warned of Moscow’s increasingly bold challenges toward the international community.
Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said on March 4 that NATO would discuss “all scenarios” to stop the war. But she added that the alliance wants to “avoid triggering an international conflict.”
Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu said that “we need to rethink everything” in light of the current conflict. He said NATO should reconsider its posture on its eastern flank, where Romania has a 600-kilometer-plus border with Russia.
WATCH: Fires could still be seen smoldering in what used to be a row of high-rise apartment buildings in Borodyanka on March 3. The small town northwest of Kyiv came under Russian air strikes and artillery shelling the previous day.
Aurescu said countries need to adapt to Belarus “becoming a military district of Russia.”
Thousands of Russian troops staged offensives from southern Belarus, which is only about 150 kilometers from the Ukrainian capital.
Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who has kept a tight lid on Belarus for nearly three decades and relies more heavily on Moscow’s support since a flawed election two years ago, repeated his claims on March 4 that Belarus’s military was not participating in Russia’s military operations in Ukraine.
Lukashenka said he had spoken with Putin earlier in the day.
Blinken discussed additional security, economic, and humanitarian support for Ukraine in a conversation overnight with Kuleba, the State Department said.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock declared solidarity with the Ukrainian people and said Putin’s war “is also bringing ruin upon his own country.”
Baerbock vowed at the NATO meeting that Europe would “take further measures that specifically target Putin’s center of power.”
