Russia has warned NATO that transports carrying weapons in Ukraine are targets. As Putin tries to threaten and weaken the alliance, more countries are seeking NATO membership.
- General Wesley Clark (Ret.), senior fellow at UCLA’s Burkle Center for International Relations and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, said the war is “ethnic cleansing,” “essentially genocide” and an attempt to erase Ukraine as a state and eliminate those who stand up for their rights.
- Clark said Ukraine needs more artillery, ammunition and intelligence targeting and said the recognition of Ukrainian competence has empowered the Biden administration to move beyond its initial posture despite escalation concerns.
- He said if Russia clears Mariupol, it would provide a path for reinforcement of Russian forces and bargaining leverage. Holding it would seal Ukraine’s fate as impoverished, he said.
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- Ministers of defense and senior military officials from more than 40 countries discuss the ongoing crisis in Ukraine during the Ukraine Defense Consultative Group event at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, April 26, 2022. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Jared Lovett)
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- NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, U.S. President Joe Biden, Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi and European Council President Charles Michel pose for a G7 leaders’ family photo during a NATO summit on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, on March 24, 2022 in Brussels, Belgium. (Photo by Henry Nicholls – Pool/Getty Images)
