NATO Secretary General spoke on Echo of Moscow with threats against Russia
NATO is moving additional troops to its eastern borders, but has no plans to send troops into Ukraine.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated this on the air of the liberal Russian radio station Ekho Moskvy, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Russian aggression against Ukraine leads to the opposite – not what Russia wants. Because the more aggression we see from Russia towards Ukraine, the more NATO soldiers will be deployed to the eastern parts of NATO - the territories of members of our organization.
After the annexation of Crimea and the implementation of military control over the Donbass in Ukraine, we previously did not have any contingents in the east of the Alliance. After 2014, after Russia invaded Ukraine, we stationed soldiers on our borders - in Poland and the Baltic countries - and increased our presence in the Baltics, in the Black Sea region.
And we must ensure that it is clear that if Russia does something like it did with Georgia in 2008 and with Ukraine in 2014, then the entire Alliance will respond to this. If a NATO country is affected, Article 5 will be activated. And the reasons why we stationed military forces in the east of the Alliance is to show Russia that if Russia invades Ukraine again, then even more forces will be deployed to the east of NATO. But these are NATO soldiers on NATO territory.
We have no plans to place them in Ukraine. Ukraine is a valuable partner, but is not a NATO member. We support them, but we have no plans to station our forces there. Of course, Russia will pay a high price if it invades Ukraine, there will be economic sanctions. And the Ukrainian army is now better prepared than in 2014. And we have more soldiers on the eastern flank,” Stoltenberg said.
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