The NATO Secretary General defended on Tuesday that Ukraine will become a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), but only in the “long term”.
“NATO countries agree that Ukraine becomes a member of the Alliance, but, at the same time, it is a long-term perspective,” Stoltenberg said during a visit to Finland, calling for the construction of a “framework strategic” to prevent any new invasion in the future.
Ukraine, militarily invaded by Russia on February 24, 2022, requested that the entry into the Atlantic Alliance be accelerated in order to be able to face the Russian army.
Moscow considers the entry of Ukraine into NATO as an “absolute red line”, arguing the risk of said integration to try to justify the offensive on Ukrainian soil.
“The question now is to ensure that Ukraine remains an independent and sovereign nation, and for that we must support Ukraine. The President’s War [da Rússia, Vladimir] Putin in Ukraine continues and there are no signs that he is changing his plans, as he wants to control Ukraine and is not preparing for peace, but for more war,” Stoltenberg told reporters.
“We also need to find frameworks to ensure that President Putin and Russia do not invade Ukraine again,” insisted the NATO Secretary General, flanked by Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin.
For Stoltenberg, “the time has also come” for Ankara and Budapest to ratify the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO.
Turkey and Hungary are the only ones of the 30 NATO member states that have not validated the membership of the two Nordic countries that want to end decades of neutrality and participation in military alliances due to the invasion of Ukraine.
“Both Finland and Sweden have achieved what they promised in the trilateral agreement with Turkey last June in Madrid,” Stoltenberg insisted.
Ankara mainly blocks Sweden’s accession and plans to ratify only Finland’s entry. For Hungary, which is due to ratify Swedish and Finnish membership in March, she said she hoped there would be a “green light” “quickly”.
The military offensive launched on February 24, 2022 by Russia in Ukraine has so far caused the flight of more than 14 million people -6.5 million internally displaced persons and more than eight million to European countries-, according to the latest data. recent reports from the UN, which classifies this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since the Second World War (1939-1945).
Right now, at least 18 million Ukrainians are in need of humanitarian aid and 9.3 million are in need of food aid and shelter.
The invasion, justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin as the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security, was condemned by the wider international community, which has responded by sending weapons to Kiev and imposing political and economic sanctions. . to Moscow.
The UN presented 8,101 civilian deaths and 13,479 wounded as confirmed since the start of the war, emphasizing that these figures are far below the real ones.
Source: TSF
