The secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Jens Stoltenberg (pictured), said yesterday (24) that the alliance is "working with the European Union, imposing severe economic sanctions to demonstrate that it will be a very high price for the Russia". At dawn yesterday (Brasilia time), Russia invaded Ukraine.

European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen, alongside Stoltenberg, said that NATO and the European Union are united in favor of Ukraine and in the application of sanctions against Russia. "We are going to present a package of new sanctions to be approved by European leaders. This package will severely limit Russia's access to the financial market. There have already been pressures against Russia in recent weeks and these pressures will increase," said von Der Leyen.

She added that the sanctions will suppress Russia's economic growth, increase inflation, encourage capital flight, damage industrial infrastructure and the country's access to strategic technology. "Our measures will weaken Russia's position and President (Vladimir) Putin will have to explain this to his citizens," said the president of the European Commission.

Both NATO and the EU are concerned that the conflict may spill over to other countries, which would activate Article 5 of the NATO Charter, which deals with mutual defense. The article states that any attack on one of the members will be considered an attack on all members.

Ukraine is not part of NATO, but it has been supported by the alliance for years. However, several countries bordering Ukraine are NATO allies, including Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland. Only Moldova, Belarus and Russia, which also border Ukraine, do not participate in NATO.

"NATO is the strongest alliance in history and we will protect and defend each of our allies. That's why we've increased our presence in the eastern part of the alliance, with more troops, ships and planes in recent weeks, to respond of the entire alliance," said Stoltenberg, who stressed that Ukraine today has a much better-prepared Armed Forces than in 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea.

The secretary-general also said that NATO has no plans to deploy troops in Ukraine, but on alliance territory. "Ukraine is a partner, we help, we strengthen its Armed Forces but we don't have personnel inside Ukraine."

Stoltenberg explained that NATO's defense plans, developed over the years and started yesterday, allow the organization to respond to crises like this. "The plans give our military commanders more powers and the structure for them to deploy forces to ensure we have contingents ready to deploy in the right places across Europe."

Intelligence

Stoltenberg said the Russian invasion had already been predicted by the organization's intelligence service and that the alliance had tried in various ways to get Russia to change course. "But Russia closed the door to a political and diplomatic solution. Our intelligence was very accurate, it predicted for months these Russian intentions to attack Ukraine and we will continue to ask Russia to change the path."

In recent months, Putin has repeatedly stated that he had no plans to invade Ukraine. Stoltenberg claimed that the Russian president was lying and that he had plans to invade. "We see invasions of Ukraine by land, air and sea. We don't have all the information, but it is an invasion of a peaceful, free and independent nation."

Stoltenberg also said that today (25) there will be a virtual summit in which NATO will consult with allies to define the next steps. "We will continue to defend our allies, we will defend our values in the face of an authoritarian regime that threatens and uses force. There will be a new reality, a new Europe after today's invasion."