The visit was also intended to be a signal: two days after he officially took over as NATO Secretary General from his predecessor Jens Stoltenberg, Mark Rutte traveled to Kiev. The former Dutch prime minister and now top NATO official assured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj of NATO’s continued support in Ukraine’s fight against the Russian aggressor.
Zelensky reiterated to Rutte his desire to be allowed to use Western weapons against targets deep within Russian territory.
Rutte himself probably has no objections. In his view, Ukraine should be able to use Western weapons systems against Russia without restrictions, he once said as Dutch Prime Minister. However, a no to the unrestricted use of Western weapons has so far come from the USA and Germany. The main reason for this is concern that Russia could escalate the war in this case.
Ukraine recently suffered a serious setback militarily. Russian troops reported on Thursday the complete capture of the front-line town of Vuhledar in the Donetsk region. Control of Wuhledar, which lies at the intersection of the eastern and southern fronts, is likely to facilitate Russia’s further advance. Russian bloggers are already speculating that the troops could now even try to advance on a town (Velyka Novosilka) 30 kilometers west of Vuhledar.
Meanwhile, in Germany yesterday, the Prime Ministers of the East German states of Saxony and Brandenburg, Michael Kretschmer (CDU) and Dietmar Woidke (SPD), as well as Thuringia’s CDU leader Mario Voigt called for stronger diplomatic efforts to end the war. All three depend on the Russia-friendly alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) to form coalitions in their federal states.