brussels after meeting today with the nato secretary general. congressman, great to have you here and thank you for your patience as we were talking. great to be with you, john. kept jabbering before with jim stavridis. you re over there in brussels at the heart of europe. tell us about your meeting with the nato secretary general and how things feel right now on the ground today in light of what happened in moscow tonight and what seems to be happening on the ground in ukraine. so, i had extensive meetings today. i m president of the nato parliamentary assembly which is like the legislative arm of nato, and today was our annual north atlantic council meeting with the ambassadors to nato and our parliamentarians. we met with the secretary general of nato. we met with the u.s. ambassador to nato. among other officials. and i would say, clearly, it was a very somber environment. i think people are very clear-eyed at this point about what is happening and what is likely to happen.
branding them legitimate targets. meantime the mayor of dnipro, a city in southwestern ukraine, was captured by russian forces today. nbc news has not been able to independently verify this but it comes one day after ivan federov, the mayor of melitopol, was reportedly taken hostage by the russians. virginia congressman gerry connolly is president of the nato parliamentary assembly. congressman, it s awfully good to see you. i want to start with your thoughts on this air strike, the base very near lviv, i believe it s only 20 miles away or so from the polish border. it is where the u.s. and nato, as you know, regularly send instructors to train ukrainian soldiers. the fact that this facility was targeted, how much closer does this bring the fight to nato? this was a clearly premeditated action by putin and
if let s say russia starts to have significant losses, and the cost just get really high, the incentive for them to negotiate something that is the face saving, excuse me, it s going to be front and center. on the other hand, if ukrainians look like they are about to lose it all, being at the negotiating table and cutting the best deal they can, is not front and center for them. negotiations are also a function of where are you on the field. and i think that still very cloudy. and that is why you believe the west strategy and the ukrainian strategy has to be to raise the cost for putin and russia so high that he wants to be at that table, and he wants to cut a deal to basically stand down. let me ask you, finally, sir, before i let you, go yeah the president of the nato parliamentary assembly, which is the legislative arm of nato,
leading to more bipartisanship on other issues. that remains to be seen but at least on this incredibly important issue, we do have full unity. important issue, we do have full uni . , ., ., important issue, we do have full uni . , ., ., ., ., ., unity. it s going to the pentagon to cover the cost unity. it s going to the pentagon to cover the cost of unity. it s going to the pentagon to cover the cost of troops unity. it s going to the pentagon to cover the cost of troops and - cover the cost of troops and intelligence sharing in the weapons of a reason to ukraine. to use instead of the higher level of spending is reflective of the threat level which congress proceeds is not going up? this level which congress proceeds is not auoin u? , , level which congress proceeds is not main u . ? , , , level which congress proceeds is not oin u? , , , level which congress proceeds is not tt-oinu? , , , going up? this is, this was almost unimaginable. going up? this is, this was almost
before i let you, go you are the president of the nato parliamentary assembly, which is the legislative arm of nato, presidents zelenskyy, i m sure you re fully aware, has been critical of the alliance after the refusal to in force a no fly zone, deliver jets to ukraine, and now he says that ukraine should accept that it won t be able to join nato. how has this conflict shaped the alliance? for better or for worse? i think putin deserves a lot of credit for solidifying the alliance, as i, said the end of magical thinking about russia and putin and what his intentions are. and the need if you were the utility of the nato alliance, it s clear, we need nato. the fact is, the difference between now and the 1930s is the neighborhood is different. nato exists, and those boundaries are sacred. and putin dare not violate those boundaries without paying