The NATO secretary general called for greater support from kyiv and admitted that Ukraine’s battlefield with Russia is “more difficult than expected.”
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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated this Thursday that the situation facing Ukraine on the battlefield with Russia is “more difficult than expected,” which is why he asked for greater support from Kiev.
“We must understand that the situation on the battlefield is difficult. Russia does not plan peace, but more war“Stoltenberg said at a press conference after a meeting with the President of Latvia, Edgars Rinkevics, in Brussels.
Stoltenberg claimed that Russia had attempted to launch offensive operations around Ukrainian cities such as Avdiivka, and acknowledged that “the fact is that the situation on the battlefield is more difficult” than the Atlantic Alliance expected.
[Este] It is not an argument against support, but an argument for more support for Ukraine because, once again, we cannot allow the President [russo ] Vladimir Putin wins,” highlighted the Secretary General of the Alliance.
At the same time, he stressed that the Ukrainians “have already achieved great victories,” highlighting, regarding the start of the war: “Most experts believed, and we also feared, that Ukraine would collapse in a matter of days and that Russia would control Kiev. in a matter of weeks.”
The reality is that the opposite happened and the Ukrainians managed to push back the Russian forces to the north, east and south, having liberated half of the territory, he pointed out.
The NATO Secretary General stated that it is “a great victory for Ukraine” that it has “liberated so much territory” and has been able to “inflict heavy losses on the Russian invaders.”
And it is a great victory for Ukraine to have prevailed as a sovereign and independent nation in Europe. Russia lost a lot. Ukraine is a strategic defeat for President Putin. “He didn’t get what he wanted,” he stressed.
The defeat of Ukraine would be “a tragedy for Ukrainians,” but also “dangerous for us,” he warned.
“The message would be that when authoritarian leaders use military force, when they violate international law, when they invade another country, they get what they want, and that makes the world more dangerous and us more vulnerable,” he said.
According to Stoltenberg, “preventing this from happening is in the national security interests of all NATO allies, including the United States,” and expressed confidence that the United States will continue to provide assistance to Ukraine.
The Secretary General stated that NATO is “closely monitoring” the situation on the Finnish border with Russia, in reference to the high number of refugees and asylum seekers detected.
“The Alliance is alert. Of course, the first responders, the Finnish authorities, are responsible for managing the situation at the border, but we need to exchange information, we need to have the best possible common understanding of the situation and then take the necessary measures if necessary, whether as NATO or as NATO allies or in other formats,” he said.
Source: Observadora
