WASHINGTON (AP) – According to White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Russia would face a NATO response if any of its strikes in Ukraine transcend borders and target members of the security alliance.
The U.S. President Joe Biden is sending his national security adviser to Rome on Monday to meet with a senior Chinese official amid growing concerns that China is amplifying Russian disinformation in the Ukraine war and may help Russia avoid economic sanctions.
According to Emily Horne, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, the talks between National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Senior Chinese Foreign Policy Adviser Yang Jiechi will focus on “efforts to manage competition between our two countries and discuss the impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine on regional and global security.”
The White House has accused Beijing of spreading bogus Russian claims that Ukraine was running chemical and biological weapons labs with US aid. According to US officials, China is aiming to offer cover for a hypothetical Russian military biological or chemical weapons attack against Ukrainians.
On Sunday, Russian missiles targeted a military training centre near Ukraine’s western border with NATO member Poland, killing 35 people.
According to Sullivan, President Joe Biden “has been explicit repeatedly that the United States will work with our partners to defend every inch of NATO territory, and that means every inch,” according to CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
According to Sullivan, a military strike on NATO territory would trigger Article 5. This necessitates other NATO countries coming to the aid of the targeted nation. “We will bring the entire might of the NATO alliance to bear in response,” Sullivan says.
So far, approximately 125,000 residents have been evacuated through safe passage corridors, according to Ukraine’s president, and a convoy carrying humanitarian aid is on its way to the besieged city of Mariupol.
VATICAN CITY Pope Francis has condemned the “barbaric” slaughter of children and other vulnerable citizens in Ukraine, pleading for an end to the violence “before towns are converted to cemeteries.”
In some of his most vehement condemnations of the Ukrainian war, and in apparent reference to Russia, which invaded Ukraine on February 24, the pontiff stated that “there are no strategic justifications that hold up” in the face of such violent action.
Francis reminded the crowd of around 25,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his traditional Sunday midday visit that Mariupol, the southern Ukrainian city that “bears the name” of the Virgin Mary, has “become a city slain by the sad conflict that is ravaging Ukraine.”
“In the name of God, I ask: ‘Stop this killing,'” Francis declared, drawing cheers from the pilgrims, tourists, and Romans in the Piazza, some of whom were holding Ukrainian flags.
Francis prayed for a stop to bombings and other attacks, as well as for humanitarian routes to be “safe and secure.”