The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has decided to deploy elements of the NATO Response Force in an effort to thwart Russia’s onslaught in Ukraine. “What we see now is a full-fledged invasion of Ukraine,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in a press conference Friday, warning that Russian forces are moving towards Kyiv.
“We are deploying elements of the NATO Response Force…to further strengthen our posture and to respond quickly to any contingency.” It is the first time that the NATO Response Force (NRF) is activated for collective defense, Stoltenberg said. The personnel will be deployed to the eastern flank of the alliance, according to Stoltenberg.
France currently leads NATO’s spearhead of the force, the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF). U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has already put U.S. forces that could be deployed with the NRF on high alert. “The Secretary has put on a shorter alert tether our contributions to the NRF, the NATO Response Force,” Press Secretary John Kirby told journalists in a briefing earlier this week. “They are more ready to go if called upon.”
In all, 8,500 U.S. personnel are on high alert to deploy with the NRF. The Department of Defense did not immediately return request for comment on the status of those personnel. The news comes as Russian forces work to capture Kyiv, with ordinary civilians working to fend them off. Ukrainians are putting up a valiant fight to thwart Russian forces all around Ukraine—
but it might not be enough to keep Russia out without assistance, said Olena Sotnyk, an adviser to Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine Olga Stefanishyna. “The Russian forces are one of the “biggest and the of course the most equipped armies in the world.
And by ourself, to defeat Russian army, it would be…almost not possible,” Sotnyk said in a briefing hosted by the German Marshall Fund Friday. “That’s why we are asking international community to interfere and not just with diplomatic means, but with very particular military support.” Meanwhile, Hacking group Anonymous has declared a ‘cyber war’ against Vladimir Putin’s government after he mounted a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The elusive computer experts issued the stark announcement on their Twitter account on Thursday evening. They said shortly before 10 pm: ‘The Anonymous collective is officially in cyber war against the Russian government.’ Around 30 minutes later, they announced that they had taken down the website of the Kremlin-backed TV channel RT, which broadcasts in Britain and has been heavily criticized for its coverage.
When MailOnline attempted to access the site this morning, it was still inaccessible and only displayed an error message that said ‘this site can’t be reached’. The group announced their move on social media, claiming to have taken down a number of Russian government websites. A social media account purporting to represent the group wrote on Thursday that “The Anonymous collective is officially in cyberwar against the Russian government.”
“The “Anonymous collective has taken down the website of the Russian propaganda channel RT News,” it added, confirming the RT.com hack. Meanwhile, the Russian government’s websites, the Kremlin, the Duma, and the Ministry of Defense were all hit by the hacker collective’s ‘cyberattack.’ Several users reported that the websites targeted by the gang slowed down and went offline for long periods of time during the day on social media networks.
