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Kyiv's air defences and a NATO proposal, November 2023
Summary
A look back at a weekend in which Russian missiles returned to Kyiv and a former NATO chief floated a partial route into the alliance.
What did security in Ukraine look like on 13 November 2023? It was shaped by two developments from the preceding days: a renewed missile attack on the capital and a fresh proposal on the country's place in NATO.
On 11 November 2023, Russia launched its first missile attacks against Kyiv in 52 days. Most of the ballistic missiles were intercepted by Ukrainian air defences, and no casualties were reported. The gap of more than seven weeks gave the strikes particular weight, and the interception record showed what the defences could do against that type of weapon.
A proposal on NATO
The same day, as reported at the time, former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen put forward a proposal for Ukraine to join the military alliance without the territories occupied by Russia. Further reports dated 12 November 2023 repeated the idea. The proposal was his own and was not described as an alliance decision.
The two developments sat side by side. One concerned the immediate protection of Ukrainian cities from missiles. The other concerned the longer-term question of how Ukraine might be tied to Western security structures while part of its territory remained under Russian occupation.
By 13 November 2023, the reports from the weekend offered a snapshot of both the military and the diplomatic sides of the war: defences that had held against a ballistic attack, and a debate about membership terms that was being discussed openly.
