NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in an interview with AFP said that he went to bed on the eve of February 24, 2022, “knowing perfectly about the massacre, which will break out a few hours later”.
“I went to bed. But it was a very short night, because I knew that at some stage, after a few hours, someone would wake me up – and this is exactly what happened,” said Stoltenberg.
“My chief of staff called me for about four hours, and he simply briefly told me that they started, that is, the invasion began. It is not surprising, because we knew. You can be a shocked cruelty of the war. But there is no way to be surprised because it is because it is, because this It was really what was predicted a few months before the invasion, ”he said.
Stoltenberg warned that NATO should be prepared for the new era of confrontation with Russia, which could last a long time.
“President Putin wants another Europe, wants Europe in which he can control neighbors, where he can decide what countries can do,” Stoltenberg said.
NATO will be, he said, “always look where there are opportunities to enter the situation when there is a place to improve relations, but with the current behavior of the Russian regime, this is impossible in Moscow.”
Stoltenberg noted that the invasion “did not really change NATO much, because we had to remember that the war did not start in February 2022. The war began in 2014, when Russia was first illegally annexed by Crimea.”
The Secretary General rejected the accusation that NATO could have done more to prevent a full -scale invasion of Russia, armed Ukraine faster after Crimea or bringing it closer to the protective shield of the alliance.
“This is a war on the choice of President Putin, for which only one is responsible – President Putin and persons who make decisions in Moscow. We can analyze, we can discuss, we can all consider various decisions, but this does not remove the presidential responsibility Putin for this war. We are here for Ukraine to win this war and provide it with weapons, ammunition, support that she needs, ”he said.