He lives. Belgium pledges $6 million to support Ukraine’s reconstruction fund – NATO works on plan against Russian attack | outside

In the future, the US Department of Defense may activate up to 3,000 reservists for deployment to Europe to support active forces in Operation Atlantic Resolve. President Joe Biden recently signed an ordinance to this effect.

The American operation Atlantic Resolve was launched under Obama, Biden’s predecessor, after Russia annexed Crimea, and strengthened the American presence in Eastern Europe. The mission aims to reassure NATO’s eastern European member states and deter Russia from invading countries allied with the United States.

Meanwhile, the US Military Command in Europe (YUKUM) said the president’s order does not change the strength of US forces in Europe. Lieutenant General Douglas Sims told the press that it was not about additional troops. It is true that in the future reservists can take over tasks previously performed by soldiers from an active unit.

It is unclear if this means that active forces in Europe can be diluted by reservists. But according to the US Department of Defense, in any case it is up to the leaders of EUCOM to decide how to divide the powers.

According to the news magazine Politico, among other things, the measure shows the scale of the US military’s mission in Europe and the deployment of several new units after the Russian invasion of Ukraine that active armed forces are requesting.

The German newspaper “Bild” talks about NATO’s new secret plan that will be implemented if Russia attacks an ally. The document of no less than 4,400 pages indicates which of the Allies will be responsible for what, what deterrents are in place to prevent attacks on core areas and how those territories might be defended in the event of an attack. According to Bild newspaper, the document contains the following:

The NATO Supreme Commander must be able to make decisions in specific situations without consulting the Allies in advance. This is to work faster.

300,000 NATO allies will be on standby, including 35,000 from the German Bundeswehr. Germany will be the logistical hub of the defense plan.

More soldiers will be deployed to the East, with four main nations responsible for a different country: Germany will be in charge of Lithuania, where it wants to permanently deploy a brigade of 4,000 soldiers. Canadians will be responsible for Latvia, British for Estonia and the United States for Poland.

NATO must also prevent Russian sabotage, which is why the alliance wants to protect underwater pipelines (for both gas and communications). A new monitoring center is being set up in the UK for this.

In the future, all members must own at least two percent of the Gross Domestic Product – the sum of all value added that can be attributed to the production of goods and services in a country in one year – Invest in defense.

NATO is creating more “heavy forces” that can withstand heavy fighting. There should be more long-range artillery and missile systems. Anti-aircraft systems are also being expanded.

Bild’s reports could not be independently verified.

Belgium is committed to contributing up to six million euros to the European Investment Bank (EIB) Fund for Ukraine. This was announced by Finance Minister Vincent van Petegem (CD&V) on Thursday.

The EIB said in a statement Thursday night that the fund’s aim is to “provide a rapid response to Ukraine’s most pressing basic needs and support the country’s economy.”

Like sixteen other member states, Belgium has pledged to contribute and ministers of the countries concerned signed declarations of intent to that end earlier in the day.

France and Italy are the largest contributors, each pledging 100 million euros. Other participating countries are Spain, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia. A total of around 383.3 million euros is expected to be raised. Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Croatia and Cyprus have also indicated that they want to fund the fund, but have not yet set an amount for their commitments.

“Current and future commitments will support the Ukrainian economy and fierce resistance to the Russian invasion,” said European Investment Bank President Werner Hoyer. The fund will finance projects in the field of municipal infrastructure, including schools, hospitals, transportation networks, water supply and sanitation.

Last year, the European Investment Bank allocated 1.7 billion euros for urgent repairs of damaged infrastructure in Ukraine.