Jens Stoltenberg, the former Norwegian prime minister, stepped down as the head of NATO last week after 10 years in the position, leaving behind a raging proxy war and a shattered Ukraine that has no chance of regaining its lost territory.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Stoltenberg said his only regret was that NATO didn’t provide Ukraine with more weapons before Russia launched its invasion in February 2022.
“If there’s anything I, in a way, regret and see much more clearly now is that we should have provided Ukraine with much more military support much earlier,” Stoltenberg said. “I think we all have to admit, we should have given them more weapons pre-invasion.”
Russia’s primary motive for launching the invasion was NATO’s support for Ukraine and the country’s potential future membership in the alliance, a fact Stoltenberg acknowledged last year.
In the years leading up to the invasion, the US and NATO slowly increased military aid to Ukraine while being aware of the potentially catastrophic consequences. “Sending lethal weapons was a big discussion. Most allies were against that, pre-invasion . . . they were very afraid of the consequences,” Stoltenberg said.
The US first provided Ukraine with “lethal aid” under the Trump administration by sending Javelin anti-tank missiles.
“I’m proud of what we have done, but it would have been a great advantage if it started earlier. It maybe could even have prevented the invasion, or at least made it much harder for [Russia] to do what they’ve done,” Stoltenberg added.
Stoltenberg also bragged about crossing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s red lines despite the risk of nuclear escalation. “I pushed for crossing all those so-called red lines that Putin has put up. And we have crossed many of them, and he hasn’t done anything,” he said.
“The reality is that if President Putin wants to escalate with the use of weapons of mass destruction, he can create all the excuses he needs. So far, we have called his bluff,” Stoltenberg added.
Putin recently issued his clearest warning to NATO yet by ordering changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine that lower the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, which came in response to the alliance considering supporting long-range strikes in Russian territory.
What a jerk. Ukraine bombs its own people for a decade and the west says nothing. The US effectively orchestrated a coup against a democratically elected president and was thrilled when a puppet president appears. A puppet who initially is pro-peace but at the behest of his monied puppet masters will fight to the last Ukrainian. And the EU and NATO. The US should not have attempted to steer world politics; the Old World is very old indeed, complex, full of disputes and relentless feuds. The US is a novice at this; fooling itself it is wise and knows the score.
The US should not have attempted to steer world politics…
Stop right there.
14,000 in the Donbas dead. Killed by 8 years of bombing by Kiev.
“Killed by eight years of bombing by Kiev, Moscow, and separatist forces.”
Fixed, no charge.
uhm excuse me if i'm wrong but russia was the invading force
im sorry?
WE bomb our own people?
Well, I guess that depends on whether you consider Donetsk and Luhansk to be part of Ukraine. Some people here do consider that to be the case. My own opinion is that as soon as they seceded, they ceased to be Ukrainians and should have been left alone instead of invaded. Do you agree?
I do consider them to be part of Ukraine.
I consider them to be rebellious putin apologists who need to be shown their place.
like russians in donbass and luhansk are not even the majority
its like the loud annoying bully everyone hates having more power than 100 weaker children.
So why don't you show the courage of your convictions, strap on your (NATO supplied) battle gear, pick up your (NATO supplied) firearm, go off to the front and show those "putin apologists" their place? Would be far more useful than barraging this board with your propaganda.
if you’re truly anti war you wouldn’t want us to submit to a foreign invader
Who is “us”? Clearly you are just another armchair general, encouraging others to fight a war you won’t participate in. Like millions of your fellow Ukrainians. I don’t blame you for not fighting; I wouldn’t fight to keep NATO’s neo-Nazi puppets in power either; but then I wouldn’t encourage them to continue to draft my fellow citizens and send them to their deaths either.
7 1/2 months
I sincerely hope you don't; both that the war is over by then, or, if not, that you think better of it. For you and all your countrymen.
So what’s the difference between you insisting that people who don’t want to be part of Ukraine be part of Ukraine whether they like it or not, and Putin insisting that people who don’t want to be part of Russia be part of Russia whether they like it or not?
the people who want to be part of russia are a minority (except in Crimea, there can be a referendum there I suppose)
we know russia imported men to fight as rebellious ukrainians in the donbass
Zionists should accusing him of antisemitism. How dares he to think about giving the weapons (which belong to Israel) to someone else?
Stoltenberg should stick to solo games of Russian roulette. I'll cheer him on at every click. See nothing happened and nothing ever will.
Yep, keep throwing gasoline on the fire. Diplomacy is dead and the ghouls paid by the MIC are winning.
Oh well, more dead Ukrainians are coming!
Proud to have called Putin's bluff……
Wonder if he's proud of:
– the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians he's sent to an early grave
– loss of ~ 25% of territory & more to come
– impacts to EU economy
– dividing Europe because of this war
NATO should have been dismantled with the dissolution of the U.S.S.R., but instead it was re-purposed as the Empire needed a military branch to ensure/enforce it's unipolar hegemony as of 1991 as well as a means of turning over military inventory to keep the deep pockets of the MIC nice and full.
There was no use for NATO after the Soviet Union called it a day and then reverted to being Russia. Again. The boogeyman syndrome rules.
There have been plenty of uses for NATO both before and after the Soviet Union’s disappearance.
Those uses have tended toward the morally indefensible and practically damaging, but they’ve been uses.
I'm glad you qualified the uses of NATO as morally indefensible.
Blinken's Idiot.
Nope. He is quite intelligent and also Machiavellian. I read earlier that he gave Israel the OK to attack aid convoys and the like.
Stupid people say and do stupid things. Many are secluded from where the actions will occur. This guy is one of them. Shooting off his mouth, then hits the wining and dining circuit.
The whining and dining circuit.
Here is a clip of Stoltenberg saying NATO began preparing for war with Russia in 2014 (after the American coup in Kiev) followed by Putin saying Russia should have invaded sooner, which it would have done if more weaponry was provided to Ukraine sooner.
https://youtu.be/gnrO9_UBubc?t=548
“The reality is that if President Putin wants to escalate with the use of weapons of mass destruction, he can create all the excuses he needs. So far, we have called his bluff,” Stoltenberg added.
Yes, so far. That just never gets old.
What an imbecile. He seems to forget that the Minsk talks came about because the western Ukrainian forces were repeatedly getting their ass handed to them by the separatists (with some help from their friends); "arming" Ukraine earlier would have simply given more weapons to what was a motley, dispirited mob not thrilled with fighting a war.
It took years of western money and training and indoctrination to build a Ukrainian army actually capable of real fighting; and the growth of that force, along with the ever increasing NATO influence, is what triggered Russia's 2022 invasion.
So all Stoltenberg's wet dream would have accomplished is a resumption of hostilities way earlier than 2022, when Ukraine was much less competent militarily.
https://putinspeaks-rt.com/