NATO ‘fully involved in Ukraine conflict’

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) further boosted Ukraine’s defense Wednesday when the Western military alliance announced in its summit in Washington, DC the sending of F-16 fighter jets to Kyiv.

United States President Joe Biden invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the summit, who voiced gratitude for the F-16s.

The new aircraft will “bring just and lasting peace closer, demonstrating that terror must fail,” Zelensky wrote on social media.

Calling the move a “very serious threat” from NATO, Russia is planning “response measures,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying on Thursday.

Peskov also said the Western military alliance, which is holding a summit in Washington this week, was now “fully involved in the conflict over Ukraine.”

Membership

The summit aimed in part to “Trump-proof” the alliance including by giving NATO a greater role, rather than the US, in coordinating arms delivery into Ukraine.

In a joint declaration, NATO leaders promised to give Ukraine 40 billion euros ($43 billion) in military aid “within the next year” — part of efforts to increase stability after Trump’s allies in Congress held up US assistance for months.

The summit also stepped up promises to Ukraine, saying that it was on an “irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership.”

Ukraine has for years sought but failed to win membership in NATO, which as an alliance considers an attack on one an attack on all.

But Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have led concerns that bringing in Kyiv now would effectively be entering war with nuclear-armed Russia as it occupies swathes of Ukrainian territory.

United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer, visiting days after his Labor Party swept to power, promised Zelensky that Britain — unlike the US — was united across partisan lines on supporting Ukraine.

Starmer made clear he had no issue with Ukraine using UK missiles to strike into Russian territory, remarks that drew a rebuke from Moscow.

The summit, Starmer told reporters, is showing Putin that NATO is “bigger now than it’s ever been, more united than it’s ever been, and absolutely clear-eyed about the threat of Russian aggression.”

Grain ship seized

Meanwhile, Kyiv said Thursday that it had seized a foreign cargo ship and detained its captain, alleging that the vessel had illegally exported Ukrainian grain from the annexed Crimean peninsula.

Since Russia’s capture of swathes of agricultural land in Ukraine in early 2022, Kyiv has accused Moscow of illegally harvesting and shipping grain produced on occupied territory to third countries.

The Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office said it had “seized” a foreign vessel in the Odesa region that had earlier exported agricultural products via the port of Sevastopol, a key military hub for Russia in the Black Sea.

The Security Services of Ukraine (SBU) said in a separate statement that it had detained the ship’s captain, accusing him of violating rules on entering occupied territory.

It also claimed that the grain exported by the vessel, Usko Mfu, had been produced in southern Ukraine.

The charges carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison, the SBU said, while prosecutors identified him as a citizen of Azerbaijan, an ex-Soviet country in the South Caucasus.

Prosecutors said 12 other foreign crew members were also on board at the time of the vessel’s seizure, without elaborating on their nationality or whether they too would face charges.