Political | Process

Statements saying they were increasing support but that stepping in directly would lead to a broader, even more brutal European war so far limited to Russia’s assault on its neighbor.

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• Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, wants to join the European Union and Western military alliance NATO, whose members are bound in its founding treaty to defend each other from invasion.

• “We are not part of this conflict,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference.

• “We have a responsibility as NATO allies to prevent this war from escalating beyond Ukraine because that would be even more dangerous, more devastating and would cause even more human suffering.”

• Thousands of people are believed to have been killed or wounded and more than 1 million refugees have fled Ukraine since Feb. 24, when Russia’s President Vladimir Putin ordered the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for Western powers to enforce a no-fly zone, with Russia shelling cities and bringing fighting to Europe’s largest nuclear plant.

• Support for Ukraine so far has come mainly in the form of far-reaching sanctions on Russia, with EU members on Friday saying more financial punishment was yet to come. NATO members have sent weapons to Ukraine, but stopped short of military action.

• In a video message earlier on Friday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said NATO foreign ministers should not allow Putin to “turn Ukraine into Syria,” in reference to the devastating Russia-backed campaign against rebel cities in that country.

• “Act now before it’s too late,” he said in the message posted on Twitter.

• Stoltenberg said NATO understood Ukraine’s desperation, calling Russia’s war in Ukraine “horrific” and warning the worst was yet to come, with Russia rolling out more heavy arms.

• But he said a no-fly zone could only be enforced by sending NATO planes to shoot down Russian ones, adding that the risk of escalation would be too big.