Leaders' Statement Confirms Response Force Deployment In Eastern Europe

NATO has published the leaders' joint statement following today's virtual summit.

• Link to full statement: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_...
• "President Putin’s decision to attack Ukraine is a terrible strategic mistake, for which Russia will pay a severe price, both economically and politically, for years to come. Massive and unprecedented sanctions have already been imposed on Russia."
• "We will continue to take all measures and decisions required to ensure the security and defence of all Allies. We have deployed defensive land and air forces in the eastern part of the Alliance, and maritime assets across the NATO area. "
• "We have activated NATO’s defence plans to prepare ourselves to respond to a range of contingencies and secure Alliance territory, including by drawing on our response forces. We are now making significant additional defensive deployments of forces to the eastern part of the Alliance."
• Deployment of NATO Response Force troops is an unprecedented move and highlights the severity of the situation. These troops will be restricted to defence of existing NATO members and will not be deployed in Ukraine.