NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday that the uprising of Wagner group mercenaries in Russia shows that the invasion of Ukraine ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin was a strategic mistake.
“We are monitoring the situation in Russia. The events of the weekend are an internal affair for Russia and another demonstration of the major strategic mistake made by President Putin in the illegal annexation of Crimea and in the war against Ukraine”, Stoltenberg told reporters in Vilnius, the city that will host the Atlantic Alliance summit next month.
“We are also monitoring the situation in Belarus,” Stoltenberg added, after Moscow sent nuclear weapons to that country earlier this month, an action NATO condemned.
“It is reckless and irresponsible. We see no indication that Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons, but NATO remains vigilant,” the Alliance official said.
According to Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, speaking at the same press conference, the uprising of the Wagner group “shows the instability of the Kremlin regime”.
“It is likely that similar or even greater challenges are expected in the future,” Nauseda added, referring to the fact that “the fixation of the Wagner group in Belarus may become an additional factor” with regard to security in the region.
Stoltenberg also stressed that it is now even more important to maintain Kiev’s support.
NATO’s Secretary General indicated that the more successful Ukraine is in its counter-offensive to recapture Ukrainian territories from Russia, “the stronger its assets will be to present at a negotiating table”.
He recalled that the Allies are preparing multi-year support for Ukraine and making decisions that will bring it closer to the military organization.
“Your place [da Ucrânia] it is in NATO,” he stressed, emphasizing that all allies agree that NATO’s doors remain open to Ukraine and that the country will sooner or later join the Alliance.
“It is for the Allies and Ukraine to decide [a sua entrada no bloco]. Russia has no right of veto,” Stoltenberg said.
The head of the Wagner paramilitary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has suspended uprising movements in Russia against the military command less than 24 hours after occupying Rostov, a key city in the south of the country before the war in Ukraine.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin described the group’s action as an insurrection, saying it represented a “mortal threat” to the Russian state and treachery, guaranteeing there would be no “civil war”.
At the end of the day on Saturday, which reported the advance of Wagner troops to about 200 kilometers from Moscow, Prigozhin announced that he had negotiated an agreement with the president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko.
Earlier, the head of the paramilitary group accused the Russian army of attacking his mercenary camps, causing “a very large number of casualties”.
Source: DN
