A former Prime Minister of Denmark, who went on to be the Secretary General of NATO until 2014, and who has become an outspoken advocate for enhanced alliance support for Ukraine over the course of Russia’s invasion, warns the conflict risks becoming a forever war. Among the changes Anders Fogh Rasmussen advocated to forestall this possibility includes a European drone and missile shield to defend the airspace over Ukraine, the deployment of European troops to Ukraine ahead of a peace deal, and donating long-range missiles to Kyiv to strike deep into Russia.
Speaking to The Guardian newspaper, Rasmussen said of the importance of boosting European and NATO aid to Ukraine while being willing to get more directly involved with ‘boots on the ground’: “If we do not carry out major changes in strategy we will look into a forever war… Putin has no incentive to engage in peace negotiations so long as he thinks he can win on the battlefield. Changes in speed and mindset are needed.”
Of these changes in strategy, the former NATO boss said it was imperative to protect Ukraine by creating an “air shield helping the Ukrainians shoot down Russian missiles and drones”. This would be placed in European countries themselves, rather than in Ukraine, meaning under the Rasmussen plan European states — probably Poland and Romania — would be engaging Russian air assets nightly from their own territory.
This goes well beyond the norm of such discussion presently, which generally come down on providing Ukraine with improved air defences while also trying to build up European capacity to hedge against anticipated future Russian aggression. Indeed, Poland and Romania, the two NATO states with the most land Ukrainian land border just this week announced the deployment of a new anti-drone defence system for this purpose.
Also in the Rasmussen plan, per his conversation with The Guardian, is the deployment of European peacekeeper troops to Ukraine even ahead of any peace talks actually concluding. Again, this is well ahead of where European states publicly state themselves as being willing to go, with the so-called Coalition of the Willing presently saying they are preparing to arrive as peacekeepers to maintain a ceasefire, should one ever be agreed.
Decrying this state of affairs, Rasmussen told the paper the Coalition of the Willing had been reduced to the “Coalition of the Waiting” and said what was called a ‘European protection force’ should be deployed sooner.
Finally, Rasmussen said he wanted to see long range missiles with the ability to strike targets deep inside Russia to be shipped to Kyiv. This has long been a key demand of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, particularly as the drone war intensified and bases launching strikes against the Ukrainian interior were shifted back to more distant locations out of Ukrainian range.
For many Russian weapon systems, from sophisticated missiles to legacy dumb-bombs of enormous explosive power but upgraded with the addition of GPS-guided glide wing kits, strategists say the best time to shoot them ‘down’ is before they even have a chance to leave the ground.
The possibility of the United States releasing stocks of the potent Tomahawk cruise missile to NATO, to then be donated to Kyiv, has now been discussed for months. Rasmussen said he strongly supported this, but overcoming American reticence over the risk of escalation could take more European nations giving their advanced cruise missiles first. Of the potential of Germany to send its indigenously-developed Taurus missiles, Rasmussen said: “That would send a clear signal across the Atlantic and put pressure on the White House. It is a strong German interest to force Putin to engage in peace negotiations … Taurus is the means to do so”.
Germany has been internally debating whether to send Taurus, which boasts a greater range than anything presently fielded by Ukraine and which benefits from a sophisticated navigation package to defeat GPS jamming and other countermeasures, for well over a year. Berlin has refused so far on anti-escalation grounds, particularly given Taurus has range to strike Moscow itself.
As for how to fund these weapons, Rasmussen told The Guardian that Europe should assume Russia will be defeated and will pay war reparations. This promise of future money from the Kremlin could be spent now, in the form of loans guaranteed against victory, to buy weapons to defeat Moscow.
Rasmussen has long been a stalwart ally of Ukraine and advocate for its military needs to defeat the Russian invasion, and has acted as advisor to President Volodymyr Zelensky. As was reported in 2023, Rasmussen was talking up the possibility of NATO members even acting unilaterally to deploy troops on the ground in Ukraine to deter further Russian aggression. He said then: “If Nato cannot agree on a clear path forward for Ukraine, there is a clear possibility that some countries individually might take action.
“We know that Poland is very engaged in providing concrete assistance to Ukraine. And I wouldn’t exclude the possibility that Poland would engage even stronger in this context on a national basis and be followed by the Baltic states, maybe including the possibility of troops on the ground. I think the Poles would seriously consider going in and assemble a coalition of the willing if Ukraine doesn’t get anything in Vilnius. We shouldn’t underestimate the Polish feelings, the Poles feel that for too long western Europe did not listen to their warnings against the true Russian mentality.”
Breitbart News
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