Financial Times: NATO is preparing a plan to deploy its forces throughout Europe

The Financial Times newspaper said that the NATO command center in the German city of Ulm is preparing a plan to deploy NATO forces throughout Europe and secure their supply in the event of a conflict with Russia.

The newspaper quoted unnamed officials as saying that new assessments of Russian military capabilities and the threat to NATO security from Russia have led to increased concern among Western governments and pressure to increase investments in defense.

She added: "NATO's Joint Logistics Command and the Alliance Command Center in the southern German city of Ulm are preparing a plan to deploy NATO forces throughout Europe and ensure their supply in the event of a conflict with Russia."

She said that the preparation of this plan will depend on the lessons that will be learned from the “Steadfast Defender” exercises conducted by the alliance, noting that these are the largest NATO exercises since the end of the Cold War.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson that NATO countries frighten their populations with the Russian threat, while smart people understand that this threat is fabricated.

He stressed that Moscow does not intend to attack NATO countries, and that the West has begun to realize that defeating Russia in Ukraine is impossible.

The Ukrainian newspaper "European Truth" reported, citing Ukrainian presidential spokesman Sergei Nikiforov, that Ukraine and Germany signed a bilateral agreement on security guarantees.

The newspaper added: “During the visit of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to Berlin, Ukraine and Germany signed a bilateral agreement on security cooperation as a continuation of the G7 statement on security guarantees for Ukraine.”

She added that the details of the agreement will be published after the joint press conference between Zelensky and Schulz.

The Ukrainian president's office said yesterday, Thursday, that Zelensky intends to sign a bilateral agreement on security guarantees during his visits to France and Germany on February 16.

During their summit in Vilnius in July 2023, NATO countries published a statement in support of Ukraine. However, the security commitments mentioned in this statement do not provide specific dates for implementation. Kiev hopes that "security guarantees" for Ukraine will take effect before the NATO summit in Washington in 2024.