Original Broadcaster Captioning (Enhanced). Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:08MUSIC
00:00:11Live from London. This is BBC News.
00:00:17News. President Zelensky says Washington Washington has to make Russia respect.
00:00:20respect. An energy cease fire announced
00:00:22announced by Donald Trump after Russian
00:00:24Russian strikes hit Ukrainian infrastructure
00:00:26infrastructure overnight. It was
00:00:29was clear that Putin does not read
00:00:34read through social. And he is cheeky.
00:00:36cheeky. Drones follow a different different set of instructions. These
00:00:40These are live pictures from the the Warsaw Security Conference. Donald
00:00:43Donald Tusk, the Polish Prime Minister, Minister, speaking there and we're
00:00:47we're due to hear from the Supreme Supreme Allied commander of forces
00:00:50forces in Europe from Nato due to to speak shortly. We'll bring you
00:00:53you that speech live. Saudi officials
00:00:56officials say one person has been been killed and nearly a dozen others
00:01:00others injured in the latest attack attack on Riyadh's international
00:01:03international airport by the Iran Iran backed Houthi group from Yemen.
00:01:06Yemen. As America's mid-term elections elections loom, a special report
00:01:10report into why data centres powering powering the AI boom are becoming
00:01:14becoming a political flashpoint.
00:01:17flashpoint. Big night planned. And And Robert Patterson tells the BBC
00:01:21BBC why he took on the role of a
00:01:24a journalist who helps expose child
00:01:26child predators in his new film Primetime.
00:01:39Primetime. Hello and I'm Annita McVeigh. McVeigh. Welcome to BBC News Now.
00:01:42Now. Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine Ukraine is ready to respect the energy
00:01:46energy cease fire announced by President
00:01:49President Trump at the weekend. If If Russia does the same. The Ukrainian
00:01:52Ukrainian president was addressing addressing the Warsaw Security Forum
00:01:55Forum after Russia carried out more more deadly attacks in Ukraine's
00:01:58Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv.
00:02:01Kharkiv. If Russia wants us to stop
00:02:05stop our long range strikes against
00:02:07against its oil refineries and oil
00:02:10oil exports, then Russia must stop
00:02:12stop its strikes against our energy
00:02:17energy system and critical infrastructure
00:02:20infrastructure and stop killing our
00:02:22our people. This is only fair. We
00:02:26We haven't heard anything definitive definitive from Moscow, but Kremlin
00:02:30Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has has told reporters that contacts
00:02:34contacts are continuing around an an energy cease fire. President Zelensky
00:02:37Zelensky also made an appeal directly directly to the United States. Europe
00:02:41Europe is not the source of the problems.
00:02:43problems. Europe is not the one making
00:02:47making everything more difficult. difficult. Most importantly, we need
00:02:50need people in America every morning morning when the day in Europe is
00:02:54is already moving toward evening
00:02:57evening to really see what is happening,
00:03:00happening, to see the truth. We want
00:03:04want peace and we are ready to work
00:03:06work together with America and with
00:03:09with everyone else to end this war.
00:03:11war. And we need to feel that same
00:03:18same unity from America. America America is without question the strongest
00:03:21strongest country in the world, and and it's important that America uses
00:03:25uses its strengths to make the world
00:03:27world a better place. President Zelensky
00:03:30Zelensky said Russia deliberately deliberately hit power plants and
00:03:33and civilian areas following President President Trump's announcement on
00:03:36on Sunday. This footage shows damage damage from an industrial site near
00:03:40near the capital Kyiv, and overnight overnight there have been more strikes
00:03:43strikes targeting infrastructure, infrastructure, causing power outages
00:03:46outages in a number of cities, including
00:03:48including Kharkiv, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia. Zaporizhzhia. And let's speak now
00:03:51now to our Ukraine correspondent correspondent Dan Johnson, who's
00:03:54who's in Kyiv. Dan, hello to you. you. Does it feel like there is an
00:03:57an energy cease fire there right
00:04:01right now? Not to the residents of
00:04:03of Kyiv who have been suffering power power outages sporadically over the
00:04:07the past week or more now, and they they are still living with that reality.
00:04:10reality. Some of that is planned. planned. They've been scheduled power
00:04:14power outages to try to preserve preserve electricity, but that has
00:04:17has left people in the cold, in the the dark and sometimes without water
00:04:20water because power is needed to to pump that to some of the tower
00:04:24tower blocks where people live in in apartments. There's also been
00:04:27been disruption to public transport. transport. The metro trains have have ground to a halt at times. The
00:04:31The trolley buses are frozen up on on the roads and had to be towed
00:04:35towed back to the depot. So everybody
00:04:36everybody here knows the reality
00:04:39reality of the impact of Russia's Russia's attacks on the energy network,
00:04:42network, and they know how grim that that could have been if they continue
00:04:46continue through the winter months. months. They've lived through it
00:04:48it for four years now. They know know when it gets really bitterly
00:04:51bitterly cold, just how desperate desperate life can be without electricity.
00:04:54electricity. It's why so many people people consider leaving big cities,
00:04:58cities, perhaps even leaving Ukraine Ukraine altogether for the winter.
00:05:01winter. So the hope will be that that this will make a positive difference. difference. And Zelensky said this
00:05:05this morning he hoped it was a step step towards potentially de-escalating
00:05:08de-escalating wider issues in the the war. But will Russia respect
00:05:11respect it? Has Russia actually signed signed up? No commitment from them
00:05:15them yet? And with his speech a couple couple of hours ago, Dan, do you
00:05:18you think President Zelensky is really really trying to shift the pressure pressure onto President Putin to
00:05:22to also agree to this energy cease
00:05:24cease fire? And if he doesn't, to
00:05:27to pressure the US to do something
00:05:30something about it? Yeah. President
00:05:33President Zelensky seems to have have although he was taken by surprise surprise by Donald Trump's announcement
00:05:37announcement yesterday. And he made made that clear this morning that
00:05:39that this came out of the blue, that that he had not agreed to it. As
00:05:42As Donald Trump said, he seems to to have taken the pragmatic approach approach that this is what he'd been
00:05:46been calling for. It's what Ukraine Ukraine needs. So therefore he's
00:05:49he's going to sign up to it. He's He's going to adopt it and abide
00:05:52abide by it. But he needs the Russians
00:05:53Russians to respect it too. And he
00:05:57he believes that will require American American pressure. So that's what what he's called for. He's trying
00:06:00trying to rebuild a relationship relationship with Donald Trump that's
00:06:03that's been fractious anyway, but but particularly difficult over the
00:06:07the past couple of days when Donald Donald Trump announced that deal
00:06:10deal with Vladimir Putin to allow allow Russia to sell diesel again.
00:06:14again. Vladimir Volodymyr Zelensky Zelensky said that that showed weakness
00:06:17weakness by the Americans. And Donald Donald Trump responded to that, saying saying that Zelensky should clear
00:06:21clear off that there should be elections elections for a new president. So
00:06:24So that relationship has to be restored.
00:06:26restored. Zelensky's hope is that
00:06:28that this can be a positive move
00:06:31move in terms of preserving his country's country's energy infrastructure, infrastructure, but that it may have
00:06:34have wider implications that he may may be able to take a step towards
00:06:38towards ending the war. If that's that's not possible, I think Zelensky
00:06:40Zelensky is at least trying to put put himself in a positive position
00:06:43position as an honest broker where where he's not the one to blame if
00:06:47if this ceasefire is not respected, respected, the expectation amongst
00:06:50amongst Ukrainians is even if this this positive step is a reality,
00:06:54reality, it doesn't mean an end to to the war. In the short-term, the the attacks will continue. We've
00:06:57We've seen that this morning with with repeated air raids on Kyiv and
00:07:00and on other cities to Russia has has got a whole barrage of drones
00:07:04drones and missiles, which presumably presumably it will now redirect to
00:07:08to other targets. And Dan, briefly,
00:07:09briefly, as long as President Trump
00:07:12Trump has this diesel deal with Russia, Russia, do Ukrainians really hold
00:07:15hold out any hope of the US administration
00:07:18administration applying any additional
00:07:20additional pressure to the Kremlin?
00:07:24Kremlin? Well, they're doubtful about about that because of Donald Trump's
00:07:27Trump's past track record, the way way that he always seems to fall
00:07:31fall on the side of Vladimir Putin Putin whenever there's a choice to
00:07:34to be made over this war and the the fact that he's not criticised
00:07:38criticised the Russians for seemingly seemingly breaching that energy ceasefire
00:07:42ceasefire already. So the Ukrainians Ukrainians are very circumspect about
00:07:46about Donald Trump and his attitude attitude towards their country. But
00:07:49But I think they see the best thing thing they can do for the time being
00:07:52being is to fall in behind their their president to support this,
00:07:55this, to cease their attacks on Russia's
00:07:57Russia's oil infrastructure in hope hope that Russia will see the benefits
00:08:01benefits to itself from this deal deal and respect it. But they know
00:08:05know the cost. If this isn't respected, respected, they know there's a difficult
00:08:09difficult winter ahead and that that that will only mean the war continues continues and potentially puts them
00:08:13them at even greater risk. OK, Dan,
00:08:15Dan, thank you very much for that.
00:08:18that. Dan Johnson in Kyiv. Well, Well, Ukraine, as you would expect,
00:08:21expect, is a major focus at the Warsaw Warsaw Security Forum. We've already
00:08:25already heard from President Zelensky. Zelensky. Of course, you saw some some clips of him. And in the next
00:08:29next few minutes, as we look at these
00:08:31these pictures from inside the main main room at the forum there we will
00:08:35will be hearing from the Supreme Supreme Allied commander of forces
00:08:38forces in Europe that is US General
00:08:43General Alexis, and he is expected
00:08:45expected to warn Russia of the alliance's
00:08:48alliance's ability to counter any any attack. So that's going to be
00:08:51be very much chiming with the warnings
00:08:54warnings from European leaders of of threats from Russia. We've heard
00:08:57heard it from President Zelensky Zelensky this morning saying don't
00:09:01don't underestimate the threat to to your countries. We know Russia
00:09:03Russia is planning many hybrid attacks, attacks, he said. And recent comments
00:09:07comments from other European leaders, leaders, for example, Chancellor
00:09:10Chancellor Mertes, the German leader, leader, saying European security
00:09:13security is at stake in Ukraine and
00:09:16and we will bring you that speech
00:09:18speech as soon as it begins. But But first to our other main story.
00:09:22story. Yemen's Houthi rebels have have renewed their warnings against
00:09:25against using airports in Saudi Arabia.
00:09:27Arabia. It comes after two deadly deadly strikes on Riyadh's main international
00:09:31international airport in as many many days. Saudi officials say one
00:09:34one person was killed and 11 wounded
00:09:36wounded in an attack on King Khalid Khalid International Airport on Sunday,
00:09:40Sunday, the day before 13 people people were killed and more than
00:09:44than 300 injured in a missile strike. strike. The deadliest attack on Saudi
00:09:47Saudi soil in more than a decade.
00:09:50decade. The Houthis, who are backed backed by Iran, say they are targeting
00:09:54targeting Saudi Arabia over its support support for government forces in
00:09:57in Yemen's civil war. Let's speak speak now to Mohammed Ali Harris,
00:10:01Harris, the foreign editor at The The National. He's speaking to us
00:10:04us from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab
00:10:06Arab Emirates. Mohammed, welcome
00:10:09welcome to the programme. How much much pressure is the Saudi Crown
00:10:12Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Salman under right now to find a
00:10:15a way to respond to the Houthis?
00:10:19Houthis? Well, this is certainly certainly turning into a defining defining moment in the history of
00:10:22of Saudi Arabia and probably a turning
00:10:25turning point in GCC relations to to the attack that killed 13 people
00:10:28people on Saturday is the biggest biggest attack in Saudi Arabia since
00:10:32since more than a decade when Isis Isis was claiming bombings in the
00:10:36the kingdom. It is also the largest largest attack by a foreign power
00:10:40power in from a foreign country against against Saudi Arabia. So there is
00:10:43is definitely a lot of pressure on on the Saudi crown prince, on the
00:10:47the Saudi government and on the Saudi Saudi army too. We've heard the Saudis
00:10:51Saudis speak up today and explain explain that Saudi Arabia is a very
00:10:54very vast country and you cannot cannot defend against every missile
00:10:58missile and every drone. And so even even if you protect the borders,
00:11:02borders, there are missiles that that cannot be intercepted at some
00:11:05some time. So the pressure is growing.
00:11:09growing. And as the attacks multiply, multiply, we will see more reaction
00:11:12reaction from the Saudis. And we we are expecting more action in Yemen.
00:11:15Yemen. They have started to claim
00:11:19claim operations against the Houthis. Houthis. Dozens of operations on on a daily basis. But maybe in the
00:11:22the next few hours or the next few few days, we'll see more surgical
00:11:25surgical operations. The pressure pressure is growing. You say is the
00:11:29the Houthis confidence also
00:11:34growing? Oh, absolutely. Causing Causing a massive casualty incident
00:11:37incident in Saudi Arabia, forcing
00:11:39forcing the airport to close, attacking attacking other airports and oil
00:11:43oil facilities. This is definitely definitely something that the Houthis
00:11:46Houthis were seeking and wanted to to happen. But it's not only Houthis
00:11:50Houthis that are gaining from this. this. It's also Iran because the
00:11:53the Houthis, as you mentioned at at the beginning, are backed by Iran.
00:11:56Iran. They are Iranian proxy. And
00:11:59And they when they escalate every every time Iran felt pressure from
00:12:02from the US or felt that there is
00:12:04is a war resuming, resuming, the the Houthis escalated more against
00:12:08against the Saudi, which is a major major US ally. So it's not only the
00:12:11the Houthis, but it's only Iran benefiting benefiting and putting more pressure
00:12:14pressure on the US through Saudi Saudi Arabia. What are the implications
00:12:18implications for Saudi's neighbours, neighbours, the wider region? Well,
00:12:22Well, this is like I said at the the beginning, it's could be a major
00:12:26major turning point also for GCC GCC relations and for other countries.
00:12:30countries. We've heard the Emiratis Emiratis say today, Doctor that this
00:12:33this attack on Saudi Arabia means means that the UAE and other Gulf
00:12:37Gulf countries are being attacked attacked too, because the security
00:12:39security of Saudi Arabia is very very tightly related and linked to
00:12:43to the security of other countries countries in the region. We've also
00:12:46also heard the Saudis say a few days
00:12:49days ago that the security of the
00:12:51the Gulf is one security and cannot
00:12:54cannot be divided. So we'll definitely
00:12:56definitely see more action from joint
00:13:00joint action from the GCC leaders leaders and GCC countries. There
00:13:03There is a GCC Gulf mechanism that
00:13:07that requires or that indicates that
00:13:09that GCC countries have to act together.
00:13:11together. It has been activated twice twice before, once in Kuwait during
00:13:15during the Gulf War and once in Bahrain
00:13:17Bahrain when there were protests.
00:13:20protests. So will we see the Saudis
00:13:22Saudis asking for this mechanism mechanism to be activated again?
00:13:25again? It's yet to be seen, but the the pattern and the path is that
00:13:29that we're seeing more more push
00:13:32push towards a collective GCC reaction. reaction. OK. Mohammed Ali Harris,
00:13:35Harris, thank you very much for your your thoughts on that developing
00:13:39developing story today. Now, let
00:13:41let me just remind you that we will
00:13:43will be going momentarily to Warsaw,
00:13:45Warsaw, where Nato Supreme commander
00:13:48commander of forces in Europe, US
00:13:50US General Alexis Grynkiewicz, has has just begun to speak. We're going
00:13:53going to take you to that in just just a moment. He is expected to
00:13:56to warn Russia of the Nato alliances
00:14:00alliances ability to counter any any attack from Russia. As President
00:14:03President Zelensky there at the forum forum and other European leaders
00:14:06leaders in recent days have warned
00:14:08warned of a variety of threats from
00:15:12And is Europe ready? The security.
00:15:18Europe ready? The security. Brief live with an audience here
00:15:19here on BBC News. This is BBC News.
00:15:24News. You are watching Nato Supreme
00:15:26Supreme commander of forces in Europe, Europe, Alex Grynkiewicz speaking
00:15:29speaking at the Warsaw Security Forum. Forum. Let's listen. In strength
00:15:33strength in the case of Nato, that's that's the strength of 32 nations
00:15:37nations together. One essential strength
00:15:39strength of our alliance is decision decision advantage. We sense and
00:15:43and see the environment through a
00:15:45a sophisticated layering of intelligence intelligence provided by Multi-source
00:15:48Multi-source collection assets that that deliver tremendous amounts of
00:15:51of data. We use this data to develop
00:15:54develop crucial insights using advanced advanced algorithms to make sense
00:15:58sense of these inputs. The key output output is a deep understanding of
00:16:01of the strategic and operational operational environment. This means
00:16:05means the alliance is unlikely to to be caught by surprise. We will
00:16:09will see if an attack is coming, coming, giving us time to assess
00:16:13assess and rapidly position our forces.
00:16:15forces. In doing so, we aim to deter.
00:16:17deter. But these movements also prepare
00:16:19prepare us to deny any potential potential attack, including those
00:16:22those aimed at seizing and holding holding Nato territory as a fait
00:16:26fait accompli. In short, they prepare prepare us to execute our most sacred
00:16:30sacred task the defence of our people
00:16:32people and our territory to help help us accomplish this task, we
00:16:35we developed our theory of victory victory in recent days. Some have
00:16:38have called it a plan, but it's not, not, at least not in the military
00:16:42military sense of the word. Rather, Rather, our theory of victory provides
00:16:46provides the alliance a common vision vision for how we win in deterrence
00:16:50deterrence and defence. It provides provides my commander's intent to
00:16:53to help us focus our militaries on on the key tasks we must accomplish
00:16:57accomplish in combat, and how we we must demonstrate the ability to
00:17:00to do these in order to deter. And And it is grounded in a clear eyed
00:17:04eyed view of the threats we face
00:17:06face and the lessons of modern warfare
00:17:08warfare from Ukraine and in the Middle
00:17:10Middle East. As such, my theory of
00:17:13of victory is simple we will block
00:17:15block the initial attack. If the the attack persists, we will blunt
00:17:19blunt it and prevent enemy advance advance and if required, we will
00:17:23will break the enemy's forces and and the operational warfighting system
00:17:26system that is arrayed against us
00:17:29us to block our land. Forces will
00:17:31will move to dominate any enemy assault assault at the point of contact through
00:17:35through manoeuver we will fix the the enemy formations and deny the
00:17:38the seizure of alliance territory. territory. Land based forces will
00:17:42will attack the enemy and destroy destroy his advancing forces. But
00:17:45But they won't be doing this alone. alone. Our air forces and navies
00:17:48navies working in concert with our our space and cyber forces will rapidly
00:17:53rapidly gain freedom of manoeuver manoeuver with air and maritime superiority
00:17:56superiority rapidly secured in and and over the battle space, these
00:18:00these forces will bring mass and and precision to bear, denying the
00:18:04the enemy the ability to hold their
00:18:07their ground. Following this initial
00:18:09initial block. We will blunt any any ongoing or follow on offensive
00:18:13offensive actions against us using using advanced sensors, autonomous
00:18:17autonomous systems and multi-domain multi-domain forces, we will deny deny the attacker the ability to
00:18:21to generate momentum or gain the the initiative. Synchronised employment
00:18:24employment of multi-domain effects effects down to the tactical level
00:18:27level will overwhelm enemy formations formations in contact and their advance
00:18:31advance if it's continuing at all
00:18:33all at this point, will falter further
00:18:37further should the adversary choose choose to press the attack or commit
00:18:39commit his reserves, we will break break the warfighting system engaged
00:18:43engaged against us. This includes includes not just the attacking force
00:18:47force itself, but anything and everything everything that supports, sustains
00:18:50sustains or controls that force. force. To do this, we will lay our
00:18:54our high end and highly effective effective precision munitions with
00:18:58with an overpowering mass of affordable affordable and scalable systems.
00:19:02systems. We will apply constant and
00:19:04and unyielding pressure both kinetic
00:19:06kinetic and non-kinetic. We will
00:19:09will do this across and through domains
00:19:12domains land, air, sea space and and cyberspace. Doing this will break
00:19:15break the enemy system and defeat
00:19:17defeat it in detail. Enemy formations
00:19:20formations will be starved of replenishment. replenishment. Any enemy commanders
00:19:23commanders will be unable to control control their forces and enemy forces
00:19:27forces and support capabilities will
00:19:29will be reduced and destroyed. In
00:19:31In executing what I've outlined above, above, we are not seeking to impose
00:19:35impose a strategic defeat on our
00:19:38our adversary, nor do we need to
00:19:40to do so. Rather, we are only seeking
00:19:43seeking to stop any attack in its its tracks to deny the ability to
00:19:47to seize and hold our territory. territory. Achieving this requires
00:19:50requires the tactical and operational operational defeat of the forces
00:19:53forces being employed against us.
00:19:55us. But no more. We break the warfighting warfighting system attacking us in
00:19:59in order to render it unable to continue
00:20:01continue that attack or as Clausewitz
00:20:03Clausewitz would put it, we force force it to culminate, meaning we
00:20:07we degrade it to the point where where it's no longer able to perform
00:20:10perform its warfighting functions. functions. It is this aspect of our
00:20:14our theory of victory, a theory grounded grounded in decisive action. But
00:20:17But action always in pursuit of a a denial defence in accordance with
00:20:21with DDA that allows us to maintain
00:20:23maintain a favourable position with with respect to escalation. Since
00:20:26Since we only need to attack the the system that is attacking us.
00:20:29us. And since we are only doing this this to prevent it from achieving
00:20:33achieving its goals, we have no need
00:20:36need and no incentive to escalate. escalate. This means the burden of
00:20:39of escalation would rest squarely squarely upon the aggressor. They
00:20:43They and they alone would bear the
00:20:45the full moral, political and strategic strategic weight of deciding whether
00:20:49whether to do so. And here we must
00:20:51must ensure the adversary also knows knows that we have the advantage
00:20:54advantage that escalation will only
00:20:56only worsen his position both militarily
00:20:59militarily and politically, and should should an adversary threaten escalation
00:21:03escalation by sabre rattling, or or should one actually decide to
00:21:06to escalate during conflict, it will
00:21:08will not fracture our alliance. Instead,
00:21:11Instead, it will only bind us more more tightly. Together. We should
00:21:15should take comfort in our ability ability to deliver mass effects and
00:21:18and the implicit warning that we we could match any enemy, move up
00:21:22up the escalation ladder. The same same factor should also give pause
00:21:26pause to any adversary seeing an
00:21:28an alliance united, strong and ready, ready, they should quickly realise
00:21:31realise the military calculus of
00:21:33of escalation is too high. So given
00:21:37given this theory of victory, this this vision of how we win, where
00:21:41where do we go from here across the
00:21:44the Alliance, we're taking steps steps to operationalise this theory
00:21:46theory and maximise the readiness readiness of our forces. If attacked,
00:21:50attacked, we are ready to fight tonight. tonight. But we are not complacent.
00:21:53complacent. We will continue to prepare prepare and rehearse each and every
00:21:56every day and will be more ready ready tomorrow and even more ready
00:21:59ready the day after that. Preparing Preparing ourselves to fight according
00:22:03according to this theory of victory victory is first of course, about
00:22:06about winning in defence. But demonstrating
00:22:08demonstrating our readiness is also also central to preventing conflict,
00:22:12conflict, showing we are ready to to execute according to our theory
00:22:15theory of victory is also is thus
00:22:17thus also key to winning in deterrence
00:22:20deterrence and as a defensive alliance alliance it should be clear to all all that maintaining effective and
00:22:24and credible deterrence is precisely
00:22:26precisely where we want to be. Every
00:22:30Every activity, every exercise and and every zloty, euro, dollar, lira,
00:22:34lira, pound or kroner that we invest
00:22:37invest contributes to this. Our theory theory of victory allows us to focus
00:22:40focus these efforts to demonstrate demonstrate we're ready to block
00:22:44block blunt and break. So our forward
00:22:47forward land forces on the eastern eastern flank will exercise and demonstrate
00:22:50demonstrate their ability to block block any attack. Our air and maritime
00:22:54maritime forces will exercise and and demonstrate our ability to gain
00:22:56gain and maintain freedom of manoeuver manoeuver and deliver multi-domain
00:22:59multi-domain effects. To further further blunt any attack, we will
00:23:03will invest in both high end and and affordable long range precision
00:23:06precision strike capabilities, sensor sensor networks and warfighting cloud
00:23:09cloud to reinforce our ability to
00:23:12to break any adversary warfighting warfighting system to render it impotent
00:23:15impotent and unable to continue the the attack. Our combined investments
00:23:18investments in readiness and capabilities
00:23:20capabilities help prepare us to defend. defend. But more importantly, they
00:23:24they are also our best means for for avoiding having to do so. Our
00:23:28Our first goal is deterrence avoiding
00:23:30avoiding conflict. But if that deterrence
00:23:33deterrence is gained by that, deterrence deterrence is gained by demonstrating
00:23:35demonstrating our strength and communicating
00:23:38communicating our resolve without
00:23:40without provocation. Nato does not not seek war with anyone. Indeed,
00:23:44Indeed, as the overall commander commander of Nato's operational forces,
00:23:47forces, implementing the theory of of victory I've described today would
00:23:51would require me to issue orders orders that I hope to never give.
00:23:54give. Our alliance exists to preserve preserve peace. But let there be
00:23:58be no doubt should war come, we will
00:24:01will block blunt any attack and then
00:24:04then if it does not cease, we will will break the forces conducting
00:24:07conducting aggression against us. us. We're rehearsed and we're ready
00:24:11ready and we'll be more ready today.
00:24:13today. More ready tomorrow and every
00:24:16every day after that we stand here here together in Poland today, stronger
00:24:20stronger than ever, united in our our common vision of a more balanced,
00:24:22balanced, more ready and more lethal lethal alliance. We know how we will
00:24:26will fight if a fight comes to us
00:24:28us and we know we will win. And together together we will ensure that any
00:24:32any adversary who considers attacking attacking our alliance reaches the
00:24:34the only conclusion that matters.
00:24:37matters. Today is not the day. So So thank you very much and I look
00:24:41look forward to our discussion.
00:24:54Thank you, thank you general. I
00:24:56think there's so much to talk about
00:24:59about here. But let me start by saying,
00:25:02saying, as we have only 15 minutes. minutes. Let me start by asking the
00:25:05the most obvious question. This theory
00:25:07theory of victory has been around around for quite some time, at least
00:25:11least a year. I know people in classified classified rooms have heard this
00:25:15this theory before. Why have you
00:25:19you decided to go public now and
00:25:21and why here in Warsaw? Well, thanks. thanks. We have been working on this
00:25:25this theory of victory for quite quite a while. There have been various
00:25:28various versions of it that have
00:25:32have come come together. We finalised finalised it about three months ago
00:25:35ago in the final version that exists exists in the classified format.
00:25:38format. The reason for going public, public, I think, is I tie it to the
00:25:42the security environment that we we talked about this morning with with the amount of activity that's
00:25:46that's going on in terms of sabotage
00:25:47sabotage and arson, I think our populations
00:25:50populations around the alliance are are a bit nervous. And what I want
00:25:54want to do is assure the 1 billion billion citizens of our alliance
00:25:57alliance that we've got this. We We know what we need to do. We know
00:26:00know how we would do it. And it's it's going to take all of us working
00:26:03working together. But we've got this
00:26:05this equally. I want others to know know who might be thinking about
00:26:09about doing harm against us, that that we've got this and that they'd
00:26:13they'd better not take any shot at at the alliance because again, we
00:26:16we know exactly what we're going going to do in deterrence and defence,
00:26:19defence, and we know exactly how how we'll handle any challenge to
00:26:21to our alliance. Should someone again again be foolish enough to try to
00:26:25to attack our territory? You're saying saying we've got this? So let me
00:26:28me challenge you on this. Does your
00:26:31your theory assess a situation in
00:26:34in which we have a war on two fronts,
00:26:36fronts, not only here in the European European theatre, but actually a
00:26:40a potential other theatre in the the Asia Pacific where the United
00:26:44United States forces might be entangled entangled in big actions. What happens
00:26:47happens then? Yeah, it absolutely absolutely does account for that.
00:26:50that. And in fact, it must. And that's that's one of the reasons why we
00:26:53we took so much time going through
00:26:54through this. We had a very useful
00:26:57useful from a military observation observation standpoint, look at this.
00:27:01this. When we had conflict ongoing ongoing in the Middle East at the the same time as the conflict in
00:27:05in Ukraine. And it gave us real insight insight on what the stresses on our
00:27:08our warfighting system would be and and how we needed to adapt it. So So some of the things in the theory
00:27:12theory of victory, like depending depending on large amounts of affordable
00:27:15affordable mass to pair with our our high end precision weapons, are are part of the things that we've
00:27:19we've learned here that we are going going to need to use kind of a high,
00:27:22high, low mix of capabilities in in order to achieve the things that that we need to do. So it absolutely
00:27:26absolutely does account for that.
00:27:27that. It accounts for the, the investments
00:27:31investments that we're making in in high end capabilities, but is
00:27:33is also posits that we need to ensure ensure we're equally investing in
00:27:36in those, those lower end capabilities capabilities and allies are doing doing that. You're doing that right
00:27:40right here in Poland and it's fantastic
00:27:42fantastic to see. We do have this.
00:27:45this. So you're talking about the the Middle East conflict. And I think
00:27:48think the first lesson learned is
00:27:50is how small are our stockpiles?
00:27:52stockpiles? Do you think that we
00:27:54we are improving? We can see that that Ukraine has major issues in
00:27:58in buying missiles, for example, example, for interceptors, for Patriot
00:28:02Patriot systems. Even when we have have the money, we simply cannot
00:28:05cannot find them anywhere. When will
00:28:08will we be prepared? You know, as as I said, we're prepared now. Now
00:28:11Now could we be better prepared? prepared? Absolutely no military military commander is ever going
00:28:14going to tell you they don't want want more of everything. And I'm
00:28:17I'm not going to be the first to to ever say that. So the investments
00:28:20investments that we're making right right now, and particularly the investments investments in our industrial base,
00:28:24base, not just to deliver capability capability but to sustain a fight
00:28:27fight as it's ongoing, as we've seen seen in Ukraine over the last several
00:28:30several years. That's a that's really really important for our industry industry reps here to understand
00:28:34understand is we need not just the the delivery of the initial capability,
00:28:37capability, but the to keep it going going over time. And I would tell
00:28:40tell you, you know, we I look very very carefully at the stockpiles
00:28:43stockpiles across the alliance. I'm I'm very comfortable with what we we have available today, and I know
00:28:47know we'll continue to improve
00:28:52it. And when you look at what's happening happening today in Ukraine, when when you look at this fall, I know
00:28:56know that the theory of victory is is about the alliance. It's about
00:28:59about an attack. And of course, deterring
00:29:01deterring such an attack from our our perspective, from Russia. But
00:29:04But the war in Ukraine is going to
00:29:07to determine how much stronger or or weaker Russia is going to be.
00:29:10be. It is at the moment determining
00:29:12determining this. What is your assessment
00:29:15assessment of the situation in Ukraine,
00:29:17Ukraine, both on the battlefield battlefield and across the society?
00:29:21society? Of course, energy, infrastructure infrastructure and all critical infrastructure
00:29:25infrastructure that Ukraine has. has. What should we be expecting expecting in the next few weeks and
00:29:28and months? You know, the Ukrainians Ukrainians have done an amazing job
00:29:31job over the last several months
00:29:33months in particular, really throughout throughout all of 2026. The front
00:29:37front line is is largely stabilised.
00:29:40stabilised. And that that's a huge,
00:29:43huge, you know, kudos to the fighting fighting spirit of the Ukrainians, Ukrainians, their innovative spirit
00:29:47spirit and what they've been able able to do on that front line despite
00:29:51despite the differences in manpower manpower and the differences in resources resources that might be available.
00:29:54available. So we ought to we really really ought to laud them. And I
00:29:58I do admire what they've been able able to do. That's the front line.
00:30:01line. There are other places that that we need to look at, and that's that's the long range strikes. And
00:30:05And we talked about this a little little bit this morning. And President
00:30:09President Zelensky mentioned this, this, you know, the continued attacks
00:30:12attacks on energy infrastructure infrastructure that are intended intended to make it hard on the civilian
00:30:15civilian population and try to break break the will of the Ukrainian people. people. That's going to make for
00:30:19for a very hard winter. I will also also say it's probably not going
00:30:23going to work if we have you know, know, people have underestimated underestimated the Ukrainians since
00:30:27since the beginning of this conflict. conflict. I'm not going to make that that mistake again. They're going
00:30:30going to get through this winter. winter. They're going to come out
00:30:32out of it with more resolve and more more fight. Ultimately, I hope that
00:30:36that we can I hope that we can end
00:30:38end this conflict and achieve a lasting
00:30:42lasting peace. But if we can't, I I know the Ukrainians are going to
00:30:45to continue to fight. You and Nato
00:30:53Nato have, of course, been observing observing what's happening in Ukraine
00:30:56Ukraine for the last five years. years. How would the theory of