In an interview with the Associated Press, the former Romanian foreign minister and ambassador to the United States added that NATO would be “forced to take appropriate action” in the event of a chemical or nuclear attack, following a series of ominous comments from Moscow.  officials who refuse to exclude their use.  He declined to say what those measures would be.
“NATO is a defense alliance, but it is also a nuclear alliance,” he said.  “If they use chemical weapons or other high-tech systems against Ukraine, it will radically change the nature of Putin’s war against Ukraine.”
“I can guarantee that NATO is ready to respond proportionately,” he added.
Geoana said the Russian attack on a theater in the besieged port city of Mariupol, which Ukrainian authorities said on Friday had killed about 300 civilians, was “further evidence that Putin’s war is unprovoked, irrational and also barbaric “.
“We hope that Mr. Putin will not go further in the war crimes and even more disaster in a sovereign nation,” he said.
But the brutal war waged by Russia since February 24 has the opposite effect of what Putin hoped for, the NATO official said, and has only united the West and worked to strengthen the 30-nation defense alliance.
At a NATO summit on Thursday, alliance leaders agreed to launch four new battle groups on the East Side – typically numbering around 1,000-1,500 troops – in Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.
“These groups are already being formed,” said Geoana, a former Romanian foreign minister.  “I can predict that this will be a matter of a few months before we see these battle teams work and be fully operational.”
If the “very poorly planned and executed” military campaign continues to be delayed for Putin’s forces, which many observers say are faltering on the battlefield, Geoana believes it could increase the risk of miscalculations by the Russian leader.
“We see that at the moment, Russian military planning is trying to reassess the situation – to try to make up for the huge losses in people and material suffered in the first month of the war.”
Geoana said the combination of harsh economic and individual sanctions on Russia and heavy military losses could eventually make Putin reconsider his attack on Ukraine.
“Mr Putin probably believed in his own post-imperial fantasies, thinking that the Ukrainians would welcome them with open arms,” ​​he said.  “In fact, they resisted very hard. We are convinced that today, even with the aid still coming to Ukraine, Russia does not have the strength and capacity to occupy all of Ukraine.”
According to Geoana, the most important mistake of the Putin regime was to underestimate “the bravery of the Ukrainian army” and the “unity of the political West.”
“We support Ukraine in many ways, from defense, economic, humanitarian terms,” ​​he said.  “When the time comes and that time comes, we will also help Ukraine to rebuild, to rebuild its nation because they have won our admiration – they deserve our support.”


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