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What did Kyiv ask of NATO in April 2021?
Summary
A look back at the mechanism Ukraine invoked as casualties mounted on the Donbass front and Russian forces massed near its border.
What prompted Kyiv to call an emergency meeting with NATO? By 14 April 2021, the answer was already in motion, set by decisions taken two days earlier.
On 12 April 2021, Ukraine triggered Article 15 of the Charter on a Special Partnership with NATO. The step initiated an emergency meeting to discuss the Russian escalation in Donbass and the build-up of Russian forces on Ukraine's border.
The mechanism had a short history. It had last been triggered in 2018, during the Kerch Strait incident. That episode took place on 25 November 2018, when the Russian Federal Security Service coast guard fired upon and captured three Ukrainian Navy vessels. The vessels had tried to pass from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov on their way to the port of Mariupol. It was the first time Russian forces had openly engaged Ukrainian forces during the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Losses on the front line
The diplomatic move came amid continuing casualties. On 12 April 2021, two Ukrainian soldiers were killed in front line clashes with separatist forces in the Donbass. Both died from small arms fire. Their deaths brought the number of Ukrainian troops killed in action since the start of the year to 29.
Taken together, the two developments of 12 April 2021 showed Kyiv pairing the daily toll of the front line with a formal appeal to its Western partner over Russian troop concentrations.
