Nato 'will stand with Ukraine' to get long-lasting peace, senior official tells BBC
Nato will stand with Ukraine up to the day in which we will have them sitting around the table for a long-lasting peace, a senior official from the military alliance has told the BBC.
Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chair of Nato's military committee since January, added from an operational point of view he considered the Russia-Ukraine war was bogged down, and it was almost time to sit and talk because it's a waste of lives.
Pointing to the fact that Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 had resulted in two more countries joining the Western alliance - Finland and Sweden - Adm Dragone described the war as a strategic failure for Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite recent slow, incremental advances by Russia on the battlefield.
They will not get a friendly or puppet government like in Belarus. Putin will not succeed.
Asked if European nations were prepared to keep going with supporting Ukraine's defence, he said they were. It was beneficial, he believed that they had had something of a wake-up call and were now taking charge of their own defence.
In June, Nato members agreed to raise their defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035. The move followed repeated urges from US President Donald Trump for members to do so.
On Russia's recent announcement about long-range, nuclear-powered weapons, the former Italian chief of defence staff and naval aviator played down concerns by Nato, saying that it was a defensive nuclear alliance.
We are not threatened by them, he said, we are just ready to defend our 32 nations and our one billion people. We are a nuclear alliance.
On the risk of future invasions or attacks, Adm Dragone noted that probable targets could be the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. However, he stressed that should Article 5 be invoked, which considers an attack on one nation equivalent to an attack on all, Nato would respond accordingly.
Regarding the potential involvement of the US, he confirmed, Yes, because they have committed to this and they have underlined that they are still in the business.
Of all Nato defence needs right now, Adm Dragone highlighted air defence as the top priority due to recent incursions by Russian drones. He mentioned upcoming enhancements, including setting up a notional drone wall on Nato's eastern borders.
Despite signs of division among some member states regarding support for Ukraine, Adm Dragone concluded on an optimistic note, asserting that The alliance is reliable, it is mature, there is a cohesion which is our centre of gravity. He reiterated, The alliance is stronger than our adversaries, and we will stay with Ukraine up to the day that peace will break out.\
