Mission for Ukraine

Stoltenberg wants to actively involve more nations

Stoltenberg wants to spread responsibility in Ukraine across several shoulders in order to minimize dependence on the USA.(Bild: AP)

Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg wants NATO to play a much greater role in supporting Ukraine. According to the outgoing head of the alliance, a special mission for Ukraine is to be set up.

Several diplomats confirmed the plan to the German Press Agency on Tuesday. The alliance partners should also pledge 100 billion euros in military support for Ukraine over the next five years, according to Stoltenberg.

Discussions on the proposals are reportedly currently underway within the defense alliance. Final decisions are to be made at the alliance summit in Washington in July, it was said. If approved by the member states, the core task of the "NATO Mission Ukraine" would be to coordinate weapons deliveries and training activities for the Ukrainian armed forces.

The spectre of Trump
This coordination is currently carried out by the USA. They regularly organize meetings at their airbase in Ramstein, Germany, or in Brussels, for example.

Stoltenberg's term of office ends at the beginning of October.(Bild: PHOTOLURE)

Stoltenberg's idea is to pool support for Ukraine in order to make it less dependent on political developments in individual alliance states. This is particularly true against the backdrop of Donald Trump's possible return to the White House as president.

This is linked to the concern that the Republican could then greatly reduce or even stop US support for Ukraine. The deployment of NATO troops in Ukraine is not the issue, it was emphasized.

Imbalance in financial support
Details of the proposal for the 100 billion euro package initially remained unclear. In particular, the question of whether or not pledges of support already made by individual countries should be included remained unanswered. Diplomats said that Stoltenberg's initiative was also about a fairer burden-sharing when it comes to supporting Ukraine.

At present, eastern allies and countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and the USA make significantly higher contributions in relation to their economic strength than countries such as France, Italy and Spain.

According to Stoltenberg, another idea is to create a NATO framework for bilateral security agreements with Ukraine. However, details on this point also remained unclear for the time being. Several NATO countries, such as Germany, France, Italy and the UK, have already concluded their own security agreements with the attacked country.

Berlin acts as a brake
A NATO spokesperson did not want to comment on the content of the proposals on Tuesday evening. He merely said that the meeting of foreign ministers this Wednesday and Thursday would discuss how NATO's support for Ukraine could be made more effective, predictable and sustainable. However, no final decisions will be made yet.

The talks are also considered difficult due to the position of the German government. In the past, the Chancellery in particular has repeatedly expressed its opposition to proposals that envisage greater NATO involvement in supporting Ukraine. This was mainly due to concerns about an escalation and expansion of the war in Ukraine into NATO territory. To date, for example, NATO itself has not supplied any lethal weapons to Ukraine.