Hours before the NATO summit in Washington on Tuesday, scores of children and adults lost their lives when the largest children's hospital in Kiev was hit. The Ukrainian government said the hospital was hit by a Russian Kh-101 missile. The Russian side claimed that the missile that hit the children's hospital was a defensive missile fired by Ukraine. As 'facts die first' in a war environment, we have no data to confirm or deny either claim.
In the wake of this attack, Ukraine has called for a large number of long-range missiles capable of hitting Russian military targets from the west. The demand to protect missiles and air defences, rather than the people who lost their lives, came to the fore and was discussed.
It is clear that this attack has prompted NATO to reconsider its decision to increase and accelerate arms assistance to Ukraine. At the summit, which also marked NATO's 75th anniversary, the US also called for the provision of long-range weapons. After some time of initiatives to protect Ukrainian airspace, it now seems certain that F-16 fighter jets will be delivered this summer. This was the first concrete step taken at the summit. Meetings between the US, the Netherlands and Denmark at the summit resulted in a decision to supply the F-16s. Norway and Belgium also announced that they were ready to give Ukraine the F-16s they had received from the US. The first delivery will be made by the Netherlands and Denmark. Zelensky, who attended the summit, said that at least 128 fighter jets were needed. It is clear that the number will not be that high in the first stage, but it is certain that it will increase gradually.
The delivery of F-16s to Ukraine will make NATO's military confrontation with Russia more concrete. The most concrete step will be to make Ukraine a member of NATO as soon as possible. The Summit's final declaration defines the path to membership as "irreversible". So NATO can make Ukraine a member, even if the conditions are difficult.
If the children's hospital in Kiev was attacked by the Russians, it can be read as a response to NATO's membership plan. Because the Russian government describes Ukraine's membership of NATO as a 'red line' at every opportunity, and says that if a step is taken in this direction, war will spread, including nuclear weapons.
Ukraine's actual membership of NATO will mean the automatic activation of Article 5 and NATO's direct involvement in the war. This move means that NATO, which has been careful not to get involved in the war since February 2022, will change its policy and offer the option of winning the war it could not win by providing Ukraine with all kinds of weapons and financial support, by turning it into a regional war.
Another important move that shows that this option is not weak at all was the decision to deploy long-range missiles capable of hitting Russia in Germany from 2026. Germany, which is the second largest provider of arms and financial aid to Ukraine after the US, did not agree to provide fighter jets or the Taurus, the so-called 'smart missiles'. Despite pressure from coalition partners and the country's main opposition, Prime Minister Olaf Scholz declared this a "red line". Among the options is the installation of German Taurus missiles on F-16s to be delivered to Ukraine via third countries.
Scholz, who declared the Taurus a "red line", signed an agreement with the USA to deploy Tomahawk missiles with a range that can hit Russia. This move, designed to intimidate Russia and protect NATO members, makes Germany once again the US's biggest barracks and supporter in the war against Russia. During the Cold War years, the US also stationed long-range nuclear missiles in Germany. There were huge demonstrations against this, involving hundreds of thousands of people. Scholz was probably one of those demonstrators. Now he has become the number one advocate for the deployment of the Tomahawk, a more modern version of the long-range missiles he opposed in the 1980s.
The peace movement in Germany has much to say against Germany being made a 'central country' by the US in a possible major war against Russia. A major demonstration is already planned for 3 October.
At the NATO summit, which ended yesterday, it was also decided that the centre to be set up under the leadership of a three-star German commander to coordinate arms supplies and military training to Ukraine will be in Wiesbaden, Germany. There are also plans to set up a NATO liaison office in Kiev.
There is no need to write that all these steps mean great dangers for the peoples of the region and then the world. The steps taken will lead to different discussions within NATO and will intensify the imperialist division struggle and deepen the contradictions between the fronts. The inclusion of the sentence "China has made a decisive contribution to Russia's continuation of the war in Ukraine" in the final declaration of the summit is an indication of this.
Recent developments show once again that there is a need for a great peace movement starting from Europe and worldwide. Especially, the peace movement in the NATO member countries has to gather and take new steps. The imperialist states and their collaborators have no intention to end the war through negotiations. The longer the war drags on, the more the arms and energy monopolies of the imperialist countries fill their pockets.
Yücel Özdemir
Yusuf Karadaş
Aydin Çubukçu