Stoltenberg regrets that NATO did not provide Ukraine with more military aid earlier

Former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has admitted that Western allies did not provide Ukraine with lethal weapons in time and in sufficient quantities when Russia launched a full-scale invasion, he said in an interview with the Financial Times.

According to Stoltenberg, he regrets that the Alliance did not provide Ukraine with “much more military support much earlier.

“I think we all have to recognize that we should have given them more weapons before the invasion. And we should have provided them with more modern weapons, rather, after the invasion. I take my part of the responsibility,” Jens Stoltenberg stated.

Stoltenberg thinks NATO should have supplied Ukraine with weapons earlier

The former NATO Secretary General pointed out that before February 2022, there was a “big debate” in NATO about whether to provide Kyiv with weapons. He claims that “most of the allies were against it” because they were “very afraid of the consequences.”

“I am proud of what we did, but it would have been a huge advantage if it had started earlier. It might have even prevented the invasion or at least made it much more difficult for Russia to do what it did,” Stoltenberg said.

The Alliance’s indecision and utmost caution in assisting Ukraine in its defensive war against Russia continues to this day. There are ongoing discussions and hesitations among NATO member states about allowing Ukraine to use long-range missiles to strike deep into Russian territory at military facilities from which Putin’s forces are preparing attacks on Ukraine.

Once again, the Putin regime is resorting to threatening the West and using nuclear blackmail, which is working on the leaders of NATO nations. Meanwhile, Russian troops are using cruise missiles to strike cities across Ukraine, and Russian attack drones are violating NATO countries such as Romania and Poland’s airspace during massive assaults on Ukraine.

Stoltenberg: Ukraine can join NATO even with occupied territories

Former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also expressed his belief that it is realistic for Ukraine to join the Alliance but not have all of its territories freed.

The former NATO Secretary General believes that there are ways to solve the problem of applying Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty on Collective Security in the case of Ukraine if it becomes a member of the Alliance with occupied territories.

“It is always very dangerous to compare, because no parallels are 100% correct, but the United States has security guarantees for Japan. However, he clarified that these guarantees do not extend to the Kuril Islands, which Japan regards as Russian-controlled Japanese territory.

Another example Stoltenberg cited was West Germany, which considered East Germany to be part of a larger Germany: “They didn’t have an embassy in East Berlin. But NATO, of course, only defended West Germany.”

“There are ways to find a solution when there is a will,” the former Secretary General said. “But there needs to be a border that defines where Article 5 applies, and Ukraine should control all the territory up to that border.”

NATO to decide on Ukraine’s future membership in the Alliance

Before his term ended, Stoltenberg stated that all NATO allies should decide on Ukraine’s future membership in the Alliance, including the occupied territories.

In preparation for the Alliance’s July 2023 Vilnius Summit, there was active discussion about a potential invitation to NATO for Ukraine “in parts,” or with the partially occupied territories.

Earlier, Stoltenberg had already admitted that the Alliance could have done more to prevent Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“That was the day Russia invaded Ukraine, February 24, 2022. I wasn’t surprised because we knew from the intelligence services what was going to happen. But I was still shocked to see how it actually happened. I realized that it was a turning point in our history: there was a Europe before that day and another Europe after that day,” Stoltenberg said in an interview with FAZ.

Stoltenberg also spoke about how the Russian side lied to NATO representatives before the full-scale invasion and Russia’s all-out war against Ukraine started.

Jens Stoltenberg handed over the leadership in the Alliance to Mark Rutte this week at NATO headquarters in Brussels. The new NATO chief vowed to strengthen aid to Ukraine in order to assist the country in its defense war against Russia. Mark Rutte listed three key priorities for his work in the future, noting that one of them would be to strengthen support for Ukraine and bring it closer to NATO membership.