Former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg believes that the failure to provide Ukraine with timely military support facilitated Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country. He said this in an interview with Spiegel.
In response, the former NATO Secretary General noted that “it’s always easy to say in retrospect that things could have been done better.” He currently believes that “the lack of military support made it easier for Russia to invade.”
“This should be a lesson for the future for all NATO partners. We invest in our military power not to wage war, but to prevent it. Otherwise, not only Russia, but no one will take us seriously,” he emphasized.
According to Stoltenberg, some allies supplied weapons, but it was not enough.
“We have to admit it to ourselves. At the time, we thought a more moderate course was better. There was too little understanding of the urgency of providing military and financial assistance to build a strong Ukrainian army and prevent a Russian invasion. This was a mistake,” he said.
The former NATO Secretary General also added that the changes taking place in Russia and the growing aggressiveness of Kremlin leader Putin have not gone unnoticed.
As a reminder, Stoltenberg recently admitted that it was a mistake not to provide Ukraine with weapons that could effectively deter Russia after 2014.
As a consequence of this “mistake,” we have dictator Putin’s brazen invasion of Ukraine – the largest war in Europe since World War II. This war has already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, wounded hundreds of thousands more, and forced millions to flee to other countries. How much longer will the war last and how many more innocent people will Putin kill?
Every mistake must be corrected.
