One month into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, President Joe Biden attended an emergency gathering of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels to discuss the alliance’s next steps in aiding Ukraine.

According to Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, the president’s mission for the meeting was “to ensure we stay united, to cement our collective resolve, to send a powerful message that we are prepared and committed to this for as long as it takes.”

Among NATO’s agreed goals was putting costs on Russia in hopes of bringing the war to an end.

“We are determined to continue to impose costs on Russia to bring about the end of this brutal war,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.

At this meeting, the White House announced that they are prepared to offer $1 billion more in funding towards humanitarian assistance and $11 billion to address worldwide food security issues after the disruptions to the Ukrainian and Russian agricultural industries over the next five years.

However, no military promises were made among Biden’s commitments to aiding Ukraine.

“I just want you to know that the alliance can still prevent the deaths of Ukrainians from Russian strikes, from Russian occupation, by providing us with all the weapons we need,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said remotely. “Yes, we are not in the alliance, and I do not make these claims. But Ukrainians never thought that the alliance and the allies were different.”

Zelenskyy has requested that NATO supply his country with military equipment and has been anxiously awaiting a response.

“You have at least 20,000 tanks, Ukraine asked for a percent, one percent of all your tanks to be given or sold to us,” Zelenskyy said in a speech to NATO. “We do not have a clear answer yet. The worst thing during the war is not having clear answers to requests for help.”

However, Biden has already committed $2 billion to Ukraine in military aid during his presidency.

Although not making any further direct military or weaponry commitments, Biden is attempting to raise pressure on other NATO countries to increase their support of Ukraine among the crisis.

NATO currently consists of 30 independent member countries, including the U.S., Canada and Greenland on the Eastern half of the Atlantic Ocean and much of Europe on the Western side.

Allies closest to Russia, including Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Romania, have prompted the U.S. and NATO to increase troops in their countries. Biden plans to discuss this but is not expected to make an immediate announcement in increasing the already 100,000 troops stationed around Europe.

Sources:

https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/nato_countries.htm

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/biden-high-stakes-meetings-push-allies-ramp-pressure-russia-rcna21201

https://www.npr.org/2022/03/23/1087872606/biden-and-u-s-allies-plan-to-step-up-sanctions-on-russia-over-its-war-in-ukraine