Almost a year after the start of the war, Jens Stoltenberg is not very optimistic. The NATO Secretary General expects a “protracted” war and at the same time warns of the dangers of a Russian victory – not only for Ukraine. However, he does see a positive aspect of the war.
Ahead of the first anniversary of the Russian attack on Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has dampened hopes of an early peace. He expects a “protracted” war that “can last many, many, many, many years,” said Stoltenberg. The allies must “ensure that Ukraine wins the war and provide it with the weapons and ammunition it needs.”
“If President Putin wins in Ukraine, it would be a tragedy for the Ukrainians,” Stoltenberg said. “But it would also be dangerous for all of us. Because then the message to him and other authoritarian leaders is that they can achieve their goals if they use military force. And then the world will become even more dangerous and we even more vulnerable,” warned he. “Putin wants a different Europe,” emphasized Stoltenberg. “He wants a Europe where he can control the neighbours, where he can decide what countries can do.”
The allies have therefore been supporting Ukraine since Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. Stoltenberg recalled his words shortly before the Russian attack on February 24 last year: “We knew the invasion was coming, we had very precise intelligence information.” He therefore warned “of the most dangerous moment in European history since the Second World War”.
The war may also take a surprising turn, said Stoltenberg: “We saw the fall of the Berlin Wall and September 11, 2001,” he said of the attacks on the USA, after which NATO for the first time since its founding in April 1949 declared the alliance case. The Allies continued to hope for ways to persuade Moscow to give in. “But with the current behavior of the Russian regime, there is no chance of that.”
In one respect, the war did something positive, said the NATO Secretary General: It “welded North America and Europe together,” he said, alluding to tensions under former US President Donald Trump, who openly supported a withdrawal of his troops from Europe had threatened. The Russian attack has shown “how important NATO and the transatlantic alliance are,” emphasized the Norwegian.
In the past year, NATO has also done a lot for the security of its members, said Stoltenberg: “We have increased our military presence in the eastern part of the alliance – not to provoke a conflict between NATO and Russia, but to prevent such a conflict and to keep the peace for the allies,” he stressed. At a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, the defense ministers of the 30 NATO countries again promised Ukraine their full support “as long as it is necessary”.
