The Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, considered this Tuesday that the Russian president “he made a big strategic mistake” by invading Ukraine to prevent the expansion of the alliance, which will have more members along the borders of Russia.
In a speech on the second day of the World Economic Forum, in the Swiss town of Davos, Stoltenberg recalled that, in December of last year, Vladimir Putin “presented an ultimatum” to NATO demand the withdrawal of the Eastern European alliance and the end of enlargement.
“He wanted less NATO on his borders and now he is getting more NATO on his borders and more members. Finland and Sweden have announced that they are requesting their entry and this is historic”, said Stoltenberg, quoted by the Spanish agency EFE.
Sweden and Finland formalized their candidacy for NATO on May 18, ending a historic non-alignment policy.
The decision of the two Nordic countries was motivated by Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine on February 24.
In reaction to the Nordic bid for NATO, Russia announced the creation of 12 bases on its western border by the end of the year.
Russia shares a 1,340-kilometre land border with Finland and a maritime border with Sweden.
In Davos, Stoltenberg reiterated that NATO supports Ukraine in the war against Russia, but will not deploy troops on the ground or get directly involved in the conflict.
In addition to imposing sanctions on Russia, Western countries have provided Ukraine with weapons to fight Russian troops.
Shortly after the invasion, kyiv urged NATO to impose a no-fly zone in Ukraine to prevent bombing by Russian aircraft.
The request was rejected because Ukraine is not a member of NATO and for fear of an escalation of the war.
In a video address at the Davos Forum on Monday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky called for more weapons and lamented that support from the international community was not always fast enough.
“If we had received 100% of our needs in February, the result would have been the saving of tens of thousands of lives,” Zelensky said.
Source: Observadora
