Russia has underestimated Ukraine’s resistance and at the same time overestimated its own military capabilities, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde. Therefore, he said, Moscow is now forced to re-assess its plans.
According to Stoltenberg, many NATO countries, starting with the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, have significantly strengthened Ukraine’s military capabilities by providing defensive weapons systems.
Stoltenberg said, however, that there were consultations within the Atlantic Alliance as to whether, how, and when its member states’ nuclear weapons could be used. He noted that NATO’s role is to put an end to nuclear weapons at some point, but stressed that once China, Russia, and North Korea have their own nuclear weapons, the world will be safer if NATO has its own.
Asked to comment on China’s stance on Ukraine, he noted that the fact that Beijing and Moscow work closely together affects NATO policies.
Asked if the gradual build-up of 100,000 US troops in Europe violated NATO’s formal framework for relations with Russia, Stoltenberg said that framework had already been violated by Russia a long time ago, starting with the 2008 invasion of Georgia. The bolstering of NATO troops in the region is aimed at securing peace and not at provoking conflict.
The NATO secretary-general also said he did not want to go into details about how the alliance would react if Russia used chemical weapons in Ukraine.
