BRUSSELS — NATO allies agreed to offer Ukraine with tools and coaching to take care of the fallout from a doable Russian assault utilizing chemical, organic and even nuclear weapons, and the alliance was rising its personal preparedness for any such occasion, NATO’s secretary common, Jens Stoltenberg, mentioned on Thursday.
Mr. Stoltenberg, who was talking to reporters after a NATO summit in Brussels on Thursday, mentioned that the alliance was nervous Russia may deploy chemical or organic weapons — that are banned by worldwide treaty — as a result of it appeared that Moscow was making a false narrative that the West was about to make use of them.
“We’re involved partly as a result of we see the rhetoric and we see that Russia is attempting to create some sort of pretext accusing Ukraine, america and NATO allies for getting ready to make use of chemical and organic weapons,” he mentioned, “and we now have seen earlier than that this manner of accusing others is definitely a option to create a pretext to do the identical themselves.”
President Biden attended the NATO summit, the primary in a collection of back-to-back summits with allies in Brussels on Thursday.
Mr. Stoltenberg mentioned that the alliance would provide Ukraine detection tools, safety and medical assist, in addition to coaching for decontamination and disaster administration to take care of the impression of any use of weapons of mass destruction. Such efforts would come with civilian and army consultants measuring radiation or chemical isotopes ranges.
“We’re additionally enhancing allies’ preparedness and readiness for chemical, organic and nuclear threats,” Mr. Stoltenberg mentioned.
The alliance’s high army commander, Gen. Tod D. Wolters, “has activated NATO’s chemical, organic, radiological and nuclear protection parts,” he added, “and allies are deploying extra chemical and organic and nuclear defenses.”
That step signifies that NATO groups professional in detecting and coping with contamination after a chemical, organic, radiological or nuclear assault are positioned on elevated alert, from beforehand being on standby, to facilitate early detection ought to such an assault happen. Mr. Stoltenberg identified that the usage of such weapons inside Ukraine may contaminate neighboring NATO members.
“Many individuals worry that Russia will use such weapons and accuse Ukraine of doing it, so it is very important exactly decide who, the place and when did it so there’s no ambiguity,” mentioned Gustav Gressel, a senior coverage fellow on the European Council of International Relations.