Former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg opined that the West should have provided Ukraine with more military aid before and immediately after the Russian invasion. IN interview he admitted to the Financial Times that he now clearly sees the need for more support in the early stages of the conflict.
According to Stoltenberg, throughout the period of full-scale war, he was forced to work in three key directions: to coordinate aid to Ukraine, to warn the West about the danger posed by Vladimir Putin, and to prevent an escalation to the level of a nuclear conflict between NATO and Russia. However, the very avoidance of nuclear war often became an obstacle to the effective solution of the first two tasks.
“If there’s one thing that I regret in a way and see a lot more clearly, it’s that we should have given Ukraine a lot more military support a lot earlier. I think we all have to admit that we should have given them more weapons before the invasion. And we should have given them more advanced weapons, rather, after the invasion, I accept my share of responsibility.”Stoltenberg admitted.
Sending lethal weapons to Ukraine has been a hotly debated topic within NATO, with most allies fearing the consequences of such a pre-invasion move delaying supplies. According to Stoltenberg, many members of the Alliance were afraid of the escalation of the conflict, so they did not support the active transfer of weapons in the initial stages.
“I’m proud of what we did, but it would have been a big advantage if it had started earlier. Maybe it could have even prevented the invasion, or at least made it much more difficult for [Russia] to do what they did.”, – remarked the former Secretary General of NATO.
Stoltenberg also emphasized the importance of a quick delivery of weapons to speed up the end of the war. During the entire period of Russian aggression, he consistently supported the idea that Ukraine’s strikes on military facilities on the territory of the Russian Federation are completely legal within the limits of self-defense.
