BREAKING: @NATO activating defense plans - " to prepare ourselves to respond to a range of contingencies & secure Alliance territory, including by drawing on our response forces" per statement
"We are now making significant addt'l defensive deployments of forces to the eastern part of the Alliance" per @NATO
"We will make all deployments necessary to ensure strong & credible deterrence & defence...measures are & remain preventive, proportionate & non-escalatory"
.@NATO statement calls #Russia warns #Ukraine "the gravest threat to Euro-Atlantic security in decades"
"We condemn in the strongest possible terms Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, enabled by #Belarus"
More: #Russia's actions "also a flagrant rejection of the principles enshrined in the @NATO-Russia Founding Act: it is Russia that has walked away from its commitments under the Act" per statement
.@NATO: "#Russia will pay a severe price, both economically and politically, for years to come"
Per a senior defense official, the assault continues along 3 axis from:
- south to north
- north central to south
- north east to south
But it has not been as easy as the Russians expected
US seeing "indications of viable Ukrainian resistance" per a senior defense official
"We continue to believe, based on what we have observed, that this resistance is greater than what the Russians expected"
"We have indications that the #Russia|ns are increasingly frustrated by their lack of momentum over the last 24 hours, particularly in the north parts of #Ukraine" per the senior US defense official
No details yet about which units will be deployed as part of that forces
"We see clear indications that the #Ukrainian armed forces are fighting back & bravely defending their country...there have been measures of success in that regard" per @PentagonPresSec
JUST IN: #Russia "not moving on #Kyiv as fast as they anticipated they would do...meeting more resistance than they expected" per a senior US defense official
But official says Russian troops still advancing
Signs #Russia is splitting some of its troops advancing from the south into NE & NW directions, per a senior US defense official
Indications #Russia|n forces trying to take a key dam, power plant - possibly including #cyberattacks vs the power plant, per a senior US defense official