Fact Check: Are NATO Troops Off to Ukraine to Operate US-Donated Missiles?

The United States’ approval for Ukraine to send long-range American missiles into Russia has led to misleading claims about the conflict and the nations that support Kyiv’s fight against Moscow.

U.S. officials said on Sunday that the White House had approved the use of U.S.-supplied Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, missiles for use against targets far into Russia’s territory.

The move marks a distinct shift in policy by the outgoing Biden administration. While it does lift a chafing restriction from Ukrainian officials, doubts swirl about how much of an impact the limited ATACMS stocks can have nearly 1,000 days into the full-scale war.

Among the commentary that followed were suspect claims that NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte had approved the deployment of NATO troops into Ukraine to operate the long-range missile use.

The Claim

A post on X, formerly Twitter, by user @ricewe123, posted on November 18, 2024, viewed 248,600 times, said: “NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte applauded the U.S., France, and the UK for delivering long-range missiles to Ukraine and he announced NATO troops would be sent to operate them directly.

“He declared this move a bold signal of NATO’s resolve, vowing to cross any line necessary to crush Russia’s ambitions.”

The Facts

In the past week, Rutte has met with Polish President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Donald Tusk, and Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, commending both nations for their support toward Ukraine.

On Monday, Rute referred to the “dangerous expansion of the war with North Korean troops fighting alongside Russia” and condemned “repeated incursions of Russian drones and missiles into NATO airspace, which he called “reckless…dangerous…unacceptable.”

Last month, following the North Korean military deployment against Ukraine, Rutte repeated that “NATO Allies will continue to support a free and democratic Ukraine because Ukraine’s security is our security” and pressed “the need to further strengthen military support to Ukraine.”

While Rutte’s support toward the defense of Ukraine has been unequivocal, he has made no statement in the wake of U.S. authorization to use long-range missiles toward targets in Russia that NATO intends to put alliance troops on the ground.

Senior NATO figures and political figures in NATO nations have suggested that deployment may be necessary in certain circumstances, but Newsweek was unable to find any statement in which Rutte argued that soldiers from NATO would intervene.

Newsweek reached out to a NATO media representative via email for comment.

Admiral Rob Bauer, the outgoing chief of NATO‘s Military Committee, said during an appearance at the IISS Prague Defence Summit in the Czech Republic earlier this month that if Russia did not have nuclear weapons, “we would have been in Ukraine, kicking them out.”

French President Emmanuel Macron refused to rule out sending Western soldiers to Ukraine in February. Other NATO countries quickly downplayed the remarks, and then-secretary general of the alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, said NATO was not considering sending troops to the battlefield. U.S. President Joe Biden has consistently said no U.S. troops would be deployed to Ukraine.

NATO explained why it has not sent troops to Ukraine: “Enforcing a no-fly zone or deploying combat troops to Ukraine would bring NATO forces into direct conflict with Russia. This would significantly escalate the war and lead to more human suffering and destruction for all countries involved.”

NATO has been subject to multiple misleading and false claims regarding the war in Ukraine. These have included misleading claims that it told people to “stock up” for World War III, that French Foreign Legion troops were in Ukraine, and that Macron had promised to deploy forces in Ukraine.

The Ruling

False.

There is no evidence that Rutte has said this. While the NATO leader has continued to hail alliance support toward Ukraine, Newsweek found no statement saying that NATO troops would be sent to operate long-range missiles in the country.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team