PM Modi chairs emergency meet on Ukrainian crisis
Highlights
- The meeting will be attended by senior cabinet ministers
- Meeting comes amidst the current situation arising out of Russia's attack on Ukraine
- NATO has agreed to beef up its land, sea and air forces on its eastern flank near Ukraine
Russia-Ukraine news: Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security on Thursday evening as the crisis between Russia and Ukraine intensified into conflict. PM Modi was briefed about the present situation in Ukraine and also about the Indians including students who have been stuck there.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Home Minister Amit Shah, and External Affairs Minister Jaishankar were seen in the meeting as well as Union Ministers Piyush Goyal and Hardeep Singh Puri, though the duo were not part of the CCS. Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, P.K. Mishra and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval were also present in the meeting.
Meanwhile, the Indian Embassy in Ukraine shared a list of temporary bomb shelters created by the local administration with stranded Indian students. Earlier in the day, Indian Ambassador to Ukraine Partha Satpathy said the situation is "highly tense and very uncertain, and this of course is causing a lot of anxiety".
NATO has agreed to beef up its land, sea and air forces on its eastern flank near Ukraine and Russia after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a military offensive in Ukraine. NATO ambassadors said in a statement after emergency talks Thursday that “we have increased the readiness of our forces to respond to all contingencies.” While some of NATO's 30 member countries are supplying arms, ammunition and other equipment to Ukraine, NATO as an organisation is not. It will not launch any military action in support of Ukraine.
Countries closest to the conflict – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland – are among those to have triggered rare consultations under Article 4 of NATO's founding treaty, which can be launched when “the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the (NATO) parties is threatened.”
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