Achieving an agreement to end the war with Russia will require difficult choices, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on a visit to Kiev today, Reuters and Ukrinform reported, quoted by BTA.
In a speech to the Ukrainian parliament, Rutte stressed that the Ukraine's military assistance program provides 90% of the defensive missiles used by Ukrainian forces.
From the parliamentary rostrum, the NATO Secretary General said that he was honored to be present in the heart of a vibrant, democratic Ukraine. He noted that the Ukrainian people are fighting with great tenacity and courage, and stressed that the members of parliament represent a people who continue to work even in the face of daily bombing.
Rutte arrived in Kiev a few hours after the new massive Russian attack, which left parts of the Ukrainian capital without heating, amid record cold temperatures, notes Agence France-Presse.
Before the speech, the secretary-general and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky laid candles at a makeshift monument to soldiers who have died since the beginning of the Russian invasion, located in a central square in Kiev, shows a video posted by Zelensky on social networks.
The Russian strikes put an end to the energy truce, notes DPA. "The targets were not military. They were exclusively civilian: hundreds of thousands of families, including children, deliberately left without heating in the worst winter cold", stressed Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine's Minister of Energy. According to him, the attacks were aimed at thermal power plants and buildings.
The Russian strike in Kiev also damaged a famous Soviet-era monument erected in the Ukrainian capital in memory of the victory over Nazism, noted Ukrainian Culture Minister Tetyana Berezhna, quoted by AFP.
"The Russians damaged the hall of fame of the National History Museum of Ukraine for World War II, located at the foot of the monument “Motherland“ - a giant statue of a woman holding a sword and shield, located at a historical site in Kiev," she specified.