Ukraine is not a member of NATO and therefore is not officially covered by Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which defines an attack on one member as an attack on the alliance as a whole. NATO headquarters in Brussels, nonetheless, is tightening its relationship with Kiev. NATO’s Land Command, headquartered in Izmir, Turkey, announced on Twitter yesterday that it is adding Ukrainian representation to its staff. “DID YOU KNOW that Ukraine is the first partner nation to take part in the @NATO Response Force?” the headquarters said. “Ukraine is a valued partner of the Alliance & one of our six Enhanced Opportunity Partners. #LANDCOM currently has one Ukrainian officer serving in our headquarters.”
Also, U.S. Air Force cargo planes have been spotted flying to and from Ukraine. UAWire reported yesterday that at least three U.S. planes have been tracked flying into and landing in Ukraine, including a C-17 that landed in Lviv. According to a Ukrainian blogger, three flights were seen in the previous two days, one from the United States and two that took off from bases in Europe. While U.S. military transport aircraft are flying all over the world at any time, their presence in Ukraine is going to get more notice because of the current escalation of tensions with Russia. Questions will also be asked about what cargo they’re delivering.
The Ukrainian side, meanwhile, is claiming that the Russian military has relocated elements of the 76th Guards air assault division, based in Pskov, to Crimea. The Channel 112 Ukraine cites an outfit called the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) claiming that it tracked these troops’ movement by rail all the way from Pskov to Simferopol. Its main source is apparently video posted on TikTok, which they say showed military equipment being loaded at a train station in the Pskov Oblast.
