Danish former Prime Minister and former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said that Ukraine faces "eternal war" and slow erosion of its territory unless Europe dramatically increases pressure on russia, including by deploying troops and creating a missile and drone shield on NATO territory to protect Ukraine from russian attacks on its infrastructure.
Itwas reported by The Guardian.
He said that if countries like Poland agreed to host such air defense systems, russia would realize that an attack on it would be an attack on the entire NATO alliance.
"We must the Ukrainian [people] defend themselves against Russian missiles and drones by building an air shield that will help Ukrainians shoot down Russian missiles and drones. NATO countries bordering Ukraine could be the location for a NATO air defense and missile system," Rasmussen said.
He also called for the deployment of a European force to protect Ukraine before a ceasefire agreement is reached. He said that the "coalition of the willing" that hopes to assemble such a force when the fighting ends has become a coalition of the willing.
"If we don't make significant changes in strategy, we will be looking at the possibility of an endless war. Putin has no incentive to engage in peace talks as long as he thinks he can win on the battlefield. Changes in speed and thinking are needed," the former NATO Secretary General said.
He said that drastic adjustments need to be made to force vladimir putin to change his thinking. In addition to developing a European-based missile shield and drones and deploying some European troops to Ukraine, he called for providing Ukraine with long-range missiles to hit more targets inside russia.
He said it was still possible to resume discussions about supplying Ukraine with US Tomahawk cruise missiles, which Donald Trump did not support, if Germany is ready to be the "first mover" and provide Ukraine with its own Taurus cruise missiles.
He said: "This will send a clear signal across the Atlantic and put pressure on the White House. Germany has a strong interest in forcing Putin to start peace talks... 'Taurus' is the means to do that."
Rasmussen said that Europe has not yet woken up to the threat posed by russia and called for the use of frozen russian assets for Ukraine
"We need to unfreeze 150 billion euros [132 billion pounds sterling] of frozen Russian assets in Euroclear and use these assets as a basis for a loan to purchase weapons and, hopefully, begin reconstruction," the former Danish prime minister said.
He predicts that European leaders will be able to overcome the objections to the plan expressed at the last meeting of the EU Council of Ministers, mainly by Belgium, where Euroclear is based. The plan is based on the assumption that neither Ukraine nor the EU would need to repay the loan, but instead could take advantage of russia's proposed reparations payment to Ukraine for the war.
Belgium, however, says that there is no guarantee that reparations will be paid as part of the ceasefire, and it may require all EU countries to provide guarantees to Belgium for the repayment of the loan.
Background: Anders Fogh Rasmussen served as Prime Minister of Denmark in 2001-2009, and in 2009 was elected to the post of NATO Secretary General, a position he held until 2014. In 2016-2019, he was a freelance adviser to President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. Since 2022, together with the head of the Presidential Office, Andrii Yermak, he has been heading an advisory group that provides proposals for security guarantees for Ukraine.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, meanwhile, MP Mariana Bezuhla said that russian occupants are making their way towards Zaporizhzhia and bypassing the entire defense line in the south through the Dnipropetrovsk Region, where, according to her, nothing has been prepared to deter them.
In addition, russian terrorist forces have struck the Dnipropetrovsk Region, resulting in de-energizing eight mines. There are 2,595 miners underground, and their rescue continues.
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