Obama Urges NATO to Help Ukraine
President Obama pushed the alliance to send a message of support to Ukraine and to help modernize and strengthen its security forces.
By Reuters on September 3, 2014. Valda Kalnina/European Pressphoto Agency
TALLINN, Estonia — President Obama on Wednesday declared the conflict in Ukraine a “moment of testing” for the United States and Europe, calling Russia’s intervention a “brazen assault” on the nation’s territorial integrity that warrants a unified response.
On a day of conflicting reports of a cease-fire agreement between President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia that both soon walked back, Mr. Obama condemned what he called “Russia’s aggression against Ukraine” and said Moscow was guilty of having violated the postwar international order.
“It is a brazen assault on the territorial integrity of Ukraine, a sovereign and independent European nation,” Mr. Obama said in a speech to more than 1,800 students, young professionals and civic and political leaders at a concert hall here. “It challenges that most basic of principles of our international system — that borders cannot be redrawn at the barrel of a gun; that nations have the right to determine their own future.”
Ukraine Crisis in Maps
The latest updates to the current visual survey of the continuing dispute, with maps and satellite imagery showing rebel and military movement.
Rejecting Mr. Putin’s frequent denials of intervention in Ukraine and his assertion that the Russian presence there is part of a humanitarian or peacekeeping mission, Mr. Obama said it was clear Moscow was responsible for the escalation of tensions there.
“It was not the government in Kiev that destabilized eastern Ukraine; it’s been the pro-Russian separatists who are encouraged by Russia, financed by Russia, trained by Russia, supplied by Russia and armed by Russia,” he said. “These are the facts. They are provable. They are not subject to dispute.”
Mr. Obama spoke before news emerged that Mr. Putin had proposed aseven-point plan to end the conflict in Ukraine that could take effect on Friday — precisely when Mr. Obama and his counterparts from NATO would be meeting in Wales to devise a response to Russia’s behavior. Mr. Putin’s announcement appeared deliberately timed to blunt that effort.
Earlier Wednesday, at a news conference with President Toomas Hendrik Ilves of Estonia, Mr. Obama had reacted cautiously to preliminary reports of a halt to the fighting in eastern Ukraine, saying it was “too early to tell” whether the cease-fire was real, and casting doubt on whether it would be lasting.
By the time he stepped back from the podium at the close of the question-and-answer session, hopes for an agreement were already fading, with the Kremlin saying it could not negotiate a cease-fire because it was not a party to the conflict, and Mr. Poroshenko’s aides saying there was no formal pact.
Later in the day, Mr. Obama stepped up his criticism of Moscow, saying “the actions of the separatists in Ukraine and Russia evoke dark tactics from Europe’s past that ought to be consigned to history.”
While Mr. Obama has said repeatedly he does not see the Ukraine crisis as the start of another Cold War, the episode is unleashing old tensions that are creating echoes – particularly for Estonia and other Baltic nations with Russian-speaking populations – of an East-West rivalry playing out uncomfortably close to their borders.
The president’s speech was part of a visit intended to show solidarity with fretful allies and reassure them – particularly newer NATO members and those bordering Russia — that the United States and Europe are serious about defending them from a newly aggressive neighbor. Mr. Obama met with the presidents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania here on the eve of the NATO summit in Wales that will be dominated by the question of how the alliance will respond to the Ukraine crisis.
“The defense of Tallinn and Riga and Vilnius is just as important as the defense of Berlin and Paris and London,” Mr. Obama said Wednesday, invoking the founding principle of collective defense that undergirds NATO. “An attack on one is an attack on all, and so if, in such a moment, you ever ask again, ‘Who’ll come to help?’ you’ll know the answer: the NATO alliance, including the armed forces of the United States of America.”
“We’ll be here for Estonia. We’ll be here for Latvia. We’ll be here for Lithuania,” the president said. “You lost your independence once before. With NATO, you will never lose it again.”
To back up the words, Mr. Obama referred to a $1 billion initiative that will position more American equipment in the Baltic States to be ready in the event of an attack, more training exercises, and more United States forces “including American boots on the ground” rotating through Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. At the news conference, he announced that the initiative – which must be approved by Congress – would include additional air force units and aircraft for training exercise in the Nordic-Baltic region that could be based at Amari Air Base in Estonia.
At the summit, NATO is expected to endorse a rapid-reaction force of 4,000 troops capable of deploying at 48 hours’ notice, supported with logistics and equipment pre-positioned in eastern European countries closer to Russia, with an upgraded schedule of military exercises and deployments that are intended to make NATO’s commitment of collective defense more credible and enhance its deterrence..
Mr. Obama used the speech to call for NATO member countries to increase their defense budgets to help rebuild the capacity of an alliance that has been eroded in recent years as military spending has fallen. The United States accounts for 75 percent of NATO spending, and Estonia is one of the few nations that meets the target of spending 2 percent of its G.D.P. on defense.
“This week’s summit is the moment for every NATO nation to step up and commit to meeting its responsibilities to our alliance,” Mr. Obama said. “Estonia does it; every ally must do it.”
Even as the president said the United States “will not accept Russia’s occupation and illegal annexation of Crimea — or any part of Ukraine,” he stopped short of promising to send arms to the country’s beleaguered military to fend off such action, a step some members of Congress and even some of his own advisers have pressed.
Mr. Obama argued that American and European sanctions are weakening Moscow, and said the United States will continue to help Ukraine in other ways, including training its military. He called on NATO to make “concrete commitments” this week to help Ukraine modernize and strengthen its forces. Mr. Poroshenko is to attend a meeting Thursday at the NATO summit to discuss such assistance.
“We have no interest in weakening Russia,” Mr. Obama said, “nor do we not seek confrontation with Russia.” But he added that a solution to the current crisis “starts by Russia changing course and leaving Ukraine.”
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