The outgoing head of the Western military alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, said NATO could have done more to arm Ukraine to try to prevent a Russian invasion in 2022.
“Now we provide military equipment for war – then we could have provided military equipment to prevent war,” the NATO Secretary General told the German weekly FAS.
Stoltenberg pointed to NATO’s reluctance to provide the weapons that Kiev requested before the full-scale Russian invasion due to fears that tensions with Russia would escalate.
After the war began, Kiev, which is not a NATO member, received one weapon system after another from its allies after initial reluctance.
Stoltenberg said in an interview that the end of the war in Ukraine will be achieved only at the negotiating table.
“In order to end this war, dialogue with Russia will have to be re-established at a certain stage. But it must be based on Ukrainian strength,” he said.
Stoltenberg refused to confirm that he would take over the chairmanship of the Munich Security Conference from German diplomat Christoph Heusgen after leaving NATO.
He told FAS that he had “many options” and would be based in Oslo.
