NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview that Russia has no plans to resolve the conflict in Ukraine peacefully. Guard.
“President Putin is not planning peace, he is planning a new war. [Путин ведет] war of attrition”
Stoltenberg said.
According to him, the fierce fighting in the Artemovsk (Bakhmut) region shows that Russia is ready “to inflict a large number of casualties for the sake of minimal interests, to bring in thousands and thousands of more military personnel.” He noted that Moscow has also accelerated military industrial production and turned to the “authoritarian regimes” of Iran and North Korea to “try to acquire more weapons.”
Stoltenberg also added that NATO is concerned about China’s stance on the conflict in Ukraine – recalling that Beijing does not condemn the launch of a special operation by the Russian Armed Forces and has not directly contacted President Vladimir over peace initiatives. Zelensky. In addition, the NATO Secretary General stated that “it is important to deter China from supplying Russia with weapons and important ammunition”.
defense spending
Stoltenberg believes that NATO member states should get at least 2% of GDP for defense financing. He hopes that Alliance members will agree to this step at the next NATO summit in Vilnius on 11-12 July.
NATO’s annual report, released March 21, says that only seven of the 30 NATO countries – the US, UK, Poland, Greece and the Baltic states – have met their defense spending target of 2% of GDP. Among the laggards are France with 1.89% and Germany with 1.49%. In response, Warsaw stated that they are ready to increase their defense spending to 5% of GDP.
According to Stoltenberg, the USA, Britain, France, Germany and other Western countries should have long been ready to support Ukraine with weapons, ammunition and components. “The need for this will continue because this is a war of attrition; It’s about the industry’s capacity to provide support,” he added.
Now, according to him, the Ukrainian army spends about 4-7 thousand rounds a day against 20 thousand Russian shells. Stoltenberg noted that the capacities of Western production facilities are not yet able to provide the required number of shells for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. “The current ammunition expenditure rate is higher than the current production rate,” Stoltenberg said, noting that new contracts for ammunition supply signal that the situation will change.
On March 20, Bloomberg wrote, citing sources, that EU countries had agreed to supply Ukraine with one million artillery shells. The European Union expects this to be six months enough for Ukrainian soldiers. However, Stoltenberg admitted that he wanted to increase the number of shells aimed at Ukraine in order to “return Russia”.
In general, the West provided Ukraine with sufficient military equipment to “launch the offensive, retake lands and liberate more and more lands.” Still, Stoltenberg hopes that Western countries can supply Ukraine with modern warplanes, especially American F-16s.
On March 21, the White House announced that they were not considering supplying F-16s to Ukraine, as they did not consider these aircraft necessary for Kiev. However, last week, Slovakia and Poland announced the transfer of fourth-generation MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine.
Stoltenberg noted once again that NATO is not a party to the conflict with Russia and that the member states of the alliance decide on their own to supply weapons to Kiev.
Stoltenberg also spoke in an interview about the situation with Sweden and Finland’s membership in the alliance. According to him, despite Ankara’s blocking of Stockholm’s membership in the organization, “progress continues” because, in fact, Sweden was “at the NATO table”. He noted that the alliance succeeded in bringing Turkey and Sweden back to the negotiating table.
Ankara is blocking Stockholm’s candidacy because of not fulfilling a number of conditions, especially the extradition of PKK members living in Sweden to Turkey. The situation was further complicated in January after far-right Hard Course leader Rasmus Paludan took several actions to burn the Koran in Stockholm.