NATO has increased its presence in the eastern flank of the alliance and it is set to deploy its response force for the first time in its history, the alliance chief announced on Tuesday.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said: “We have increased our presence in eastern part of the alliance and today we are, for the first time in our history, deploying the NATO Response Force. Today French troops are arriving in Romania as the lead elements of this force.”
This came as the Russia-Ukraine war entered its sixth day on Tuesday, with the latest reports indicating that Russian troops were heading toward the capital Kyiv.
Last week on Thursday, NATO decided to activate its defense plans enabling it to deploy capabilities and forces more easily in NATO territory.
Stoltenberg also stressed that the military alliance “is not going to be part of the conflict.”
“So, NATO is not going to send troops into Ukraine or planes into Ukrainian airspace,” he added. So far, at least 136 civilians, including 13 children, have been killed in Ukraine and 400 others, including 26 children, injured, according to UN figures. Around 660,000 people have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries, the UN Refugee Agency said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile Russian forces on Tuesday morning hit with a missile the central square and the regional administration building in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv city.
Speaking on the consequences of the shelling of the country’s second-largest city, Yevhen Vasylenko, the spokesman for the Ukrainian State Emergency Service in the Kharkiv region, said rescue teams saved six people, including one child, while about 20 people were injured.
He added that there are still people under the debris, with no certain information yet available on fatalities.
Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of the Kharkiv region, said the city had been under the missile attacks throughout the night.
Noting that many parked vehicles were burned on the streets, Synyehubov said there were casualties and injuries among civilians.Major damage was also reported on other nearby buildings.
On Monday, Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of Kharkiv, said at least nine people were reported to be killed — including three children — and 37 others wounded after Russian forces launched multiple rocket strikes on Kharkiv.
“Today we had a very difficult day. It showed us that it’s not just a war, this is a massacre of Ukrainian people,” Terekhov said on Telegram.
“The missiles hit residential buildings, killing and injuring peaceful civilians. Kharkiv has not seen such damage for a very long time. And this is horrible,” he added.
The footage on social media showed lots of Grad missiles hitting the central parts of the city, mainly the residential buildings. The Kharkiv region is some 300 miles away from the capital Kyiv.
