“He [Putin] has made a big mistake. “It completely underestimated the strength of the Ukrainian armed forces, the courage of the Ukrainian leadership and the Ukrainian people, and it also underestimated the unity of NATO and its partners in providing support to Ukraine,” Stoltenberg told CNN’s A Thursday.
Speaking at the NATO summit in Madrid, Stoltenberg said Putin had failed to achieve his goals of weakening the NATO alliance.
“One of his main messages at the beginning of this war was that he wanted less NATO. Indeed, he proposed that an agreement be signed to prevent further enlargement of NATO. “What it is getting now is more NATO and two new NATO members, including Finland ρα borders with Russia, doubling NATO’s borders with Russia,” he told Amanpour.
“This does not mean that we do not see the seriousness of the difficulties that Ukraine is facing in Donbas,” Stoltenberg said.
Stoltenberg told CNN he ignored Putin’s rhetoric and would “evaluate him for his actions.”
“What he is doing in Ukraine is a brutal violation of international law. “It’s a war that has resulted in a lot of civilian casualties, civilian casualties and huge losses,” he told CNN.
Achievements at the NATO summit in Madrid are a “victory” for the military alliance, according to Stoltenberg.
“It is a victory for NATO that we have once again demonstrated our unity and our ability to change, to adapt when the world changes,” said the NATO leader.
“We live in a world where we see brutal use of force against a close NATO neighbor, a close NATO partner in Ukraine, and that is why we have significantly strengthened and will further strengthen our presence in the eastern part of the alliance to “remove any room for miscalculation or misunderstanding in Moscow about our readiness to protect and defend all allies.”
“This is a deterrent and the purpose of the deterrent is to prevent conflict. “And that is exactly what NATO has been doing for more than 70 years – to prevent conflict and to keep the peace.”
