White House: NATO will respond ‘With Full Force’ if Russia attacks

NATO will respond “with full force” if Russia attacks any of the alliance’s territory, said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday.

The incident would trigger NATO’s Article 5, which says an attack on one NATO nation would be considered an attack on all allies, he told CBS News. Sullivan did not say how severe the attack would have to be to trigger the provision.

“All I will say is that if Russia attacks, fires upon, takes a shot at NATO territory, the NATO alliance would respond to that,” he said, adding that the White House “has been clear repeatedly that the United States will work with our allies to defend every inch of NATO territory, and that means every inch.”

At the same time, Sullivan noted that the “escalation risk with a nuclear power is severe, and it is a different kind of conflict than other conflicts the American people have seen over the years,” Sullivan also told CNN. “As things stand today, the United States has not adjusted our nuclear posture, but it is something that we monitor day by day,” he continued to say.

The remarks came after Ukrainian officials accused Russian forces of carrying out an airstrike against the Yavoriv military training area in Ukraine, located about 12 miles from the Polish border. At least 35 people died in the strike, officials said Sunday.