The year of conflict in Ukraine has not fundamentally changed NATO, because the military alliance has been preparing for it since 2014. This was announced on February 13 at a press conference in Brussels by the Secretary General of the organization Jens Stoltenberg.
“He did not change NATO, he only demonstrated the importance of the alliance. Since since 2014, NATO has begun to carry out the most significant build-up of its military forces,” the head of the bloc said.
According to him, the hostilities did not begin in February 2022, but in 2014.
“And then the adaptation of NATO began,” he confirmed.
Stoltenberg stressed that since 2014, the bloc has increased the number of Reaction Forces, the number of military exercises, and increased defense spending for the first time in many years.
He also drew attention to the fact that the North Atlantic Alliance can make efforts to create guarantees for Kyiv and become part of the negotiating decisions on Ukraine. The format of guarantees has not yet been determined, but it can be said with confidence that all necessary efforts will be made on this issue.
The current stage of the conflict in Ukraine has turned into a “logistics war”, so it is necessary to send military equipment and ammunition to the Ukrainian army as soon as possible, Stoltenberg concluded.
Moscow has repeatedly condemned Western supplies to Kyiv and pointed out that they could lead to a serious escalation of the conflict.
Earlier, on February 1, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, expressed confidence that the statements about the supply of fighter jets by the EU countries to Kiev would increase the “irrepressible appetite of the regime of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky” and lead to an escalation of the conflict.
