NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stressed on Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is the aggressor in the offensive launched in Ukraine and showed today that “he is preparing for more war”.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and European Union High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Josep Borrell at the headquarters of the Atlantic Alliance in Brussels, Stoltenberg lamented the State of the Nations speech delivered this Tuesday held by Putin and his announcement that Russia is suspending participation in the New START treaty, the last remaining nuclear arms control pact with the United States.
In response to Putin’s speech, who accused the West of wanting to impose a “strategic defeat” on Ukraine and wipe it out “once and for all”, arguing that the Western threat against Russia justified the invasion of Ukraine , Stoltenberg underlined that, “one year ago, President Putin launched the illegal war against a peaceful neighbor”.
“The facts are clear. No one is attacking Russia. Russia is the aggressor and Ukraine is the victim of aggression. And we support Ukraine’s right to self-defense, as enshrined in the United Nations Charter,” he said.
The Secretary General of the Atlantic Alliance stressed that “it is President Putin who started this imperialist war of conquest, it is Putin who continues to escalate the war”.
“He thought he could destroy Ukraine and divide us, but he underestimated the determination of the Ukrainian people to defend their homeland and underestimated our unity.”
According to Stoltenberg, a year after the launch of the Russian invasion, there is no “sign that President Putin is preparing for peace, on the contrary”.
“As it has made clear today, it is preparing for more war. Russia is launching more offensives, mobilizing more troops and turning to North Korea and Iran. China is planning military support for Russia’s war,” he said.
The NATO Secretary General insisted that “Putin cannot win this war”, so it is necessary to “maintain and strengthen support for Ukraine”.
“We must give Ukraine what it needs to win and triumph as an independent sovereign nation in Europe,” he said.
Stoltenberg also said he regretted “Russia’s decision today to suspend its participation in the ‘New START’ treaty,” and invited the Kremlin to reconsider this decision, which, he stressed, “has changed the entire arms control architecture. dismantled”.
In his State of the Nation speech, delivered today in Moscow, Vladimir Putin assured that Russia will achieve its goals in Ukraine “step by step”, while describing the moment the country is going through as “difficult”.
“A year ago, to protect the people of our historic lands, to ensure the security of our country, to remove the threat posed by the neo-Nazi regime that emerged in Ukraine after the 2014 coup, decided to launch a special military operation,” Putin said in his State of the Nation address to the chambers of parliament.
Putin underlined: “Step by step, carefully and consistently, we will solve the tasks before us.”
As of 2014, he claimed that Donbass “fought, defended the right to live in their own country, speak their native language, fought and did not give up under the conditions of constant blockades and bombings, the undisguised hatred of the Kiev regime and believed and hoped that Russia would come to the rescue”.
The Kremlin head said Russia has in the meantime done “everything possible” to solve the problem by peaceful means and has “patiently negotiated” a peaceful way out of this “very difficult” conflict.
“But a completely different scenario was being prepared behind our backs. The promises of Western rulers, their assurances about the desire for peace in Donbass, as we see now, turned out to be a lie, a cruel lie,” he said.
Putin further believed that the West was “simply buying time”, engaging in “tricks and turning a blind eye to political assassinations, regime repression in Kiev, mocking believers and increasingly encouraging Ukrainian neo-Nazis to lead terrorist actions in Donbass “.
“And I want to emphasize that even before the start of the special military operation, Kiev was negotiating with the West to provide Ukraine with air defense systems, fighter jets and other heavy equipment,” he claimed, again accusing Ukraine of trying “to acquire nuclear weapons.” acquire”.
Putin also accused the United States and NATO of “quickly deploying their military bases and secret biological laboratories close to Russia’s borders”, of “dominating the theater of future military operations with maneuvers” and of preparing a “enslaved Ukraine for a great war”. “.
NATO, EU and Kiev set up expert group to improve military support
NATO, the European Union and Ukraine decided today to set up a group of experts to analyze how the Ukrainian army can best provide “the weapons it needs” to fend off Russian military aggression.
The Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Jens Stoltenberg, made the announcement during a joint press conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and the European Union (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs. and security policy, Josep Borrell, after a meeting at the headquarters of the Atlantic Alliance in Brussels.
“At Ukraine’s request, we have agreed that NATO will help Ukraine establish an effective and transparent arms procurement system. Ukraine has the weapons it needs,” announced Jens Stoltenberg.
The head of Ukrainian diplomacy, in turn, underlined the importance of greater coordination in the field of military training, production and acquisition of weapons and their supplies on the battlefield.
“We must be aware that since February 2022, Ukraine and its close partners have been carrying out what is likely to be the largest logistics operation since World War II,” he stressed, welcoming the decision to launch a group to establish a high level “to find a solution to issues related to the production of weapons and ammunition”.
Kuleba argued that “the capacity to produce exists and also the capacity to deliver, so what is needed is coordination”.
For his part, Borrell reiterated that Ukraine needs weapons, namely ammunition, with the utmost urgency – which is “measured in weeks, not months” – and revealed that, following Monday’s meeting of EU heads of diplomacy, in which it issue was addressed. has already formally requested the defense ministers of the 27 to use their ‘stocks’.
“Yesterday [segunda-feira] In the evening, immediately after the meeting with the foreign ministers, I sent a letter to all EU defense ministers, who will receive it today, asking them to supply Ukraine with ammunition from their reserves or from the contracts which they have already concluded with the industry, give priority to Ukraine,” he stated, recalling that the issue of weapons is a competence of defense ministers, not foreign affairs.
The day before, the High Representative had already announced that he would present concrete proposals to defense ministers at the informal meeting on 7 and 8 March in Stockholm.
Borrell also stressed “the historic significance” of today’s meeting, which brought together NATO, the EU and Ukraine for the first time, “in a constellation of three, in what is a clear demonstration of determination to” continue to support Ukraine, to to defend himself. , and condemnation of Russian aggression.
“Today’s discussion was essential for coordination. As Kuleba said, this is the key word. We need to coordinate, accelerate and increase our support. This is the only way for Ukraine to win this war,” he said.
Source: DN
