NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said that NATO members must increase support for Ukraine and change the trajectory of the war. He asserted that spending more now will save trillions of dollars that will need to be spent if Kiev lost the war.
Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, Rutte argued Western states must “step up and not scale back the support” they are sending to Kiev. He added, “We have to change the trajectory of the war.”
Rutte’s statement is an admission that the war has not been going well for Kiev over the past several months. Ukrainian forces have consistently lost territory to Russian troops. Additionally, Kiev has struggled to find enough young men to stabilize the front lines.
While Rutte believes that escalating support to Kiev will lead to a Ukrainian victory, many analysts argue that Russia maintains “escalation dominance” over its smaller neighbor. This was the prevailing view in the Obama administration. President Obama explained in 2016, that Ukraine “is going to be vulnerable to military domination by Russia no matter what” support Washington provides Kiev.
Still, Rutte asserted in remarks at the WEF that increasing aid to Ukraine now will save the West money over the long term. “If Ukraine loses then to restore the deterrence of the rest of NATO again, it will be a much, much higher price than what we are contemplating at this moment in terms of ramping up our spending and ramping up our industrial production,” he said.
Rutte and other Western leaders argue that after President Putin conquers Ukraine, he will invade another European nation. Putin has explained that Moscow views Kiev’s membership in NATO as a threat to Russia’s national security and that the war in Ukraine is only intended to prevent Kiev’s ascension into the Washington-led bloc.
The NATO chief also claimed that if Russia prevailed in Ukraine, it could embolden other countries to invade their neighbors. “This is not a conflict between Russia and Ukraine or Russia and Europe. It’s a geopolitical issue because of North Korea, China, Iran, and that is why we need to get a good deal,” he said. “A good deal means you will not have Putin high-fiving with Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping and the mullahs in Iran.”
Rutte did not mention Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who ordered the invasion of Syria and Lebanon last year.
At the event, Trump envoy Ric Girnell criticized NATO members for failing to meet alliance standards of military spending and attacked the policy of former President Joe Biden. “You should be able to talk to people,” Grenell said. “Talking is a tactic, and you’re not going to be able to solve problems peacefully unless you actually have conversations.”
Rutte agreed with Girnell that NATO members need to increase their defense spending. He also voices his support for Trump’s threat to impose tariffs and sanctions on Russia. “That’s the way forward,” he said. “Trump starting that debate is good, he will always do it in his own way.”
On Wednesday, Trump threatened to ramp up the economic war on Russia if a deal between Kiev and Moscow was not reached soon. “If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries,” he said.
On Thursday, the Kremlin responded by downplaying the threat of more sanctions and repeated that Moscow is prepared to engage with the US. “We do not see any particularly new elements here,” Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “He likes these methods, at least he liked them during his first presidency.” The spokesman added, “We carefully record all the nuances. We remain ready for dialogue, President Putin has repeatedly spoken about this – for equal dialogue, for mutually respectful dialogue.”
