The reckless nuclear rhetoric of Russian President Vladimir Putin should not prevent NATO members from providing more military aid to Ukraine, outgoing NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview with Reuters, BTA reports.
Stoltenberg was reacting to Putin's statement last week that Russia could use nuclear weapons if attacked with conventional missiles, and that Moscow would consider any nuclear-backed attack on Russian territory a joint attack.
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Putin's warning came as the United States and its allies weighed whether to allow Ukraine to launch conventional Western missiles deep into Russian territory. Kiev continues to seek permission from the West to strike targets that are part of Russia's military effort, Reuters notes.
"What we have seen is a pattern of reckless Russian nuclear rhetoric and messaging, and this fits into that pattern," said Stoltenberg, who tomorrow hands over NATO leadership to former Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte after a decade at the helm the alliance.
"Every time we have increased our support with new types of weapons - battle tanks, long-range weapons or (US fighter jets) F-16s - the Russians have tried to prevent us,' Stoltenberg told Reuters in NATO headquarters on the outskirts of Brussels. "They failed, and also this latest example should not prevent NATO allies from supporting Ukraine,", he specified.
Stoltenberg added that NATO has not noticed any change in Russia's nuclear position "which would require changes on our side".
The former prime minister of Norway said that the biggest risk for NATO would be if Putin wins the war in Ukraine.
"Then the message will be that when he uses military force, but also when he threatens NATO allies, then he gets what he wants, and that will make us all more vulnerable,'' Stoltenberg said. "There are no risk-free options in a war," he declared.
The US administration continues to balk at Ukraine's requests to strike deep into Russian territory with weapons such as ATAKMS long-range tactical missiles over fears of rising tensions with Moscow and potential retaliation by the Kremlin. Some Western officials have also expressed doubt about how effective such strikes would be in shifting the balance of the war, Reuters notes.
Stoltenberg said there is no magic formula that will change everything on the battlefield. But strikes deep inside Russia could change the situation as part of a broader Western effort to help Ukraine repel a Russian invasion, he added.
Any negotiated end to the war will have to include security guarantees for Ukraine from Western powers, most notably the US. Otherwise, Russia will not respect any lines drawn on the map beyond which it should not have gone, added the NATO Secretary General.
"When some line is agreed upon - be it the internationally recognized border or another cease-fire line, we must be absolutely sure that the war will end there,", Stoltenberg said.
"So far we have seen Russia attack, wait and then attack again," he said, referring to previous agreements designed to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine that began in 2014.
"I don't think we can change President Putin's mind (on Ukraine), but I think we can change his calculations by showing that the cost of continuing the war is so high that for him it is more good to sit down and accept Ukraine as a sovereign independent state," added Stoltenberg.