NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday Ukraine should expect more Russian attacks on critical infrastructure that threaten the country’s power grid and gas supply, as well as basic services for the population, Reuters reports.
“Doing this as we head into winter shows that the president [russo, Vladimir] Putin is now trying to use winter as a weapon of war against Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said, quoted by the news agency.
The Secretary-General’s accusation was made at a press conference on the eve of a two-day meeting with the foreign ministers of the Atlantic Alliance countries, which will take place in Romania’s capital Bucharest.
The head of Portuguese diplomacy, João Gomes Cravinho, will attend this meeting of the North Atlantic Council, which will be attended by Dmytro Kuleba, the Ukrainian foreign minister.
NATO’s support for Ukraine, namely the most urgent needs facing the country in this war that has been going on for more than nine months, is one of the themes of this meeting. Alliance resilience and the “challenges of China” will also be discussed.
Jens Stoltenberg stressed on Friday that NATO “will not back down” in supporting Ukraine in the face of the invasion of the Russian Federation.
Stoltenberg notes that “the Allies are providing unprecedented military support” and hopes that foreign ministers will agree to more “non-lethal” support.
Stoltenberg viewed this as a “terrible start to winter” in Ukraine, given the escalation of Russian attacks in recent weeks, and pledged support to Ukrainian authorities “for as long as necessary”.
As for China, NATO’s Secretary General stressed that this power “is not an adversary” but “is intensifying military modernization, increasing its presence, from the Arctic to the Western Balkans, from space to cyberspace, and seeking control over the critical infrastructure of NATO allies”.
With Lusa
Source: DN
