The claim: NATO leader announced Ukraine aid will be mandatory for member countries
A June 13 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) claims some countries no longer have any choice but to provide aid to Ukraine.
“NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg: ‘Weapons supplies to Kyiv will become mandatory for NATO countries, they will be coordinated by command structures under the leadership of General Cavoli,'” reads the post.
A similar post on X, formerly Twitter, was reposted over 1,000 times in that same period.
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Our rating: False
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg made no such announcement. There is nothing to support the claim in any of Stoltenberg’s recent statements, and a spokesperson for NATO said the claim is false.
NATO leader hasn’t announced ‘mandatory’ military aid to Ukraine
There is no credible evidence Stoltenberg announced a mandate for NATO members to provide military aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia. Nor are there credible news reports of such an announcement.
A NATO spokesperson told USA TODAY that Stoltenberg didn’t announce mandatory aid to Ukraine from member countries.
Some other posts making the claim include a video of Stoltenberg at a June 12 press conference, during which he said delays in providing military aid to Ukraine have had “consequences on the battlefield.” However, he did not say member countries would be required to send aid to Ukraine, according to a NATO transcript.
Stoltenberg has said members should commit to collectively providing a minimum of $43 billion annually to support Ukraine’s war effort, but he has also made it clear that his proposal has not been agreed upon.
Stoltenberg, during a June 27 meeting with Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, said he expects leaders of NATO countries to agree on a long-term “pledge of support” to Ukraine during the NATO Summit in Washington in mid-July.
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The Facebook post cites Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry, but nowhere in multiple press conferences held in June did she attribute the statement in the post to Stoltenberg. She did, however, claim during a June 19 press conference that NATO plans to create a “fund for obligatory support” for Ukraine.
The U.S. alone has approved about $175 billion in aid to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in late February 2022, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, though only $107 billion went directly to Ukraine’s government. The remainder went to “funding various U.S. activities associated with the war.”
USA TODAY has previously debunked false claims about U.S. military aid to Ukraine, including that the U.S. accidentally sent Ukraine an extra $6.2 billion, that U.S. aid to Ukraine is double the expenditure for the Afghanistan War and that Biden said he is sending U.S. troops to Ukraine to fight Russia.
USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Reuters also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources:
- NATO, accessed July 2, Speeches & transcripts
- NATO, accessed July 2, Press Releases
- NATO, June 12, Pre-ministerial press conference by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg ahead of the meetings of NATO Ministers of Defence in Brussels
- NATO, June 13, Press conference by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg following the first day of the meetings of NATO Defence Ministers
- NATO, June 27, Joint press conference by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg with the Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas
- Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, June 19, Briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Moscow, June 19, 2024
- NATO News (YouTube), June 12, NATO Secretary General pre-ministerial press conference at Defence Ministers Meeting, 12 JUN 2024
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