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Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that Ukraine is facing an “eternal war” and a slow erosion of territory unless Europe significantly increases pressure on Russia, including deploying troops and creating a missile and drone shield on NATO territory to protect Ukraine from Russian attacks on its infrastructure.
Rasmussen, who held the post at NATO from 2009 to 2014 and was prime minister of Denmark from 2001 to 2009, said in an interview with the Guardian that if countries such as Poland agreed to host such air defenses, Russia would understand that an attack on them would be an attack on the entire NATO alliance.
“ We should help the Ukrainian people protect themselves from Russian missiles and drones by building an air shield that helps Ukrainians shoot down Russian missiles and drones. NATO countries neighboring Ukraine could be the site of a NATO-based air and missile defense system ,” he said.
Rasmussen also called for the deployment of a European defense force for Ukraine ahead of a ceasefire agreement. He said the "coalition of the willing" that he had hoped to assemble such a force when the fighting ended had been reduced to a coalition of those who waited.
"If we don't make major changes in strategy, we will see an eternal war. Putin has no incentive to engage in peace negotiations as long as he thinks he can win on the battlefield. Changes in speed and mentality are needed ," he said.
Strong security guarantees would make it easier for Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine's president, to sell his people a peace deal that included the loss of Ukrainian territory, Rasmussen said.
He added that dramatic changes were needed to force a shift in Vladimir Putin's mindset. In addition to developing a Ukrainian shield against European-based missiles and drones, and deploying some European troops to Ukraine, he demanded that Ukraine be given long-range missiles to hit more targets inside Russia.
He said it was still possible to reopen discussions on supplying Ukraine with US Tomahawk missiles, which Donald Trump has not supported, if Germany was willing to be the "first mover" and provide Ukraine with its Taurus missiles.
" This would send a clear signal across the Atlantic and put pressure on the White House. It is a strong German interest to force Putin to engage in peace negotiations... Taurus is the vehicle to do that ," he said.
Trump’s approach to Ukraine has been in limbo since the US president appeared to back down from supplying Tomahawk missiles and instead announced a second summit with Putin. Trump later canceled that meeting, saying he didn’t believe the Russian president was serious about peace, and imposed economic sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil. He seems to have generally reverted to a position where both sides should be left to fight.
Rasmussen said Europe was still not waking up to the threat posed by Russia and called for the use of frozen Russian assets for Ukraine.
" We should melt the frozen Russian assets of 150 billion euros in Euroclear and use the assets as the basis for a loan to buy weapons and, hopefully, start reconstruction ," Rasmussen said.
He predicted that European leaders would be able to overcome objections to the plan voiced at the last EU council of ministers, mainly from Belgium, where Euroclear is headquartered. The plan is based on the assumption that neither Ukraine nor the EU would need to repay the loan, but could instead rely on a proposed Russian payment of war reparations to Ukraine.
However, Belgium is saying there is no guarantee that reparations will be paid as part of a ceasefire and may ask all EU states to provide guarantees to Belgium regarding loan repayment./ TheGuardian
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