Operation Eastern Sentinel will focus primarily on protecting Alliance territory, but NATO continues to learn from Ukraine and will take into account its experience in shooting down air targets.
Points of attention
- Operation Eastern Sentinel, led by NATO, focuses on protecting Alliance territory while drawing on Ukraine's experience in shooting down air targets.
- General Hrynkevich acknowledges the initiative of Ukraine and the EU in developing air defense and cooperation with NATO, highlighting the importance of incorporating lessons from Ukraine's defense strategies.
- There are no current plans for integration between NATO and Ukrainian air defense, but NATO is keen on learning from Ukraine's defense-industrial base and extensive experience with drone interceptors.
Operation Eastern Sentinel does not currently involve integration with Ukrainian air defense
This was stated by the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Alexus Hrynkevich, at a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Eastern Sentinel will be focused primarily on protecting Alliance territory. And at this point, I see no conflict between the support that individual countries are providing to Ukraine and what they are proposing to do for that effort.
Alexus Hrynkevich
Supreme Allied Commander Europe
This is how Hrynkevich answered the question of whether it is time to integrate the anti-aircraft capabilities of the Alliance and Ukraine and act together against the same enemy.
At the same time, the general positively assessed Ukraine's experience and the EU initiative to build the so-called drone wall, saying that such methods are in line with NATO's intentions.
This is very much in line with some of our thinking about strengthening our eastern flank in terms of land and air. Having just returned from the Baltics, where a number of countries are investing in technology, studying Ukraine's experience in terms of what sensors and what weapons, kinetic and non-kinetic, I understand that this can be effective. And so integrating these types of defenses into our day-to-day deterrence activities and into our regional plans is absolutely what we want to do in the future.
Hrynkevich added that NATO can learn a lot from Ukraine itself.
They have a well-developed defense-industrial base. They have extensive experience with drone interceptors. We have the capacity, we have the Joint Analytical Training Center in Poland, which is common to NATO and Ukraine, where we take lessons.
