On Thursday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg made his first visit to Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion last year and declared that Kyiv’s “rightful place” is as a member of the Western military alliance.
“Ukraine’s rightful place is in the Euro-Atlantic family. Ukraine’s rightful place is in NATO. And over time, our support will help to make this possible,” Stoltenberg said at a press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Ukraine was first promised NATO membership in 2008 despite a warning from then-US Ambassador to Russia William Burns, who now serves as the CIA director, that Moscow views Ukrainian NATO membership as “the brightest of all red lines.”
NATO significantly stepped up its support for Ukraine following the 2014 US-backed coup in Kyiv that ousted Viktor Yanukovych. “Over the years, NATO Allies have provided training for tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers,” Stoltenberg said in Kyiv.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Stoltenberg has repeatedly pledged Ukraine would eventually become a member, but Kyiv has never been given a timeline. Some NATO members want to give clearer statements to Ukraine on its potential membership at a summit that will be held in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius this July, but the US is reportedly pushing back against the plan.
Zelensky has been invited to the Vilnius summit, and Stoltenberg said he expects discussion about stronger NATO support for Kyiv. “I also recognize that President Zelensky will raise the issue of membership, of security guarantees, and this will be high on the agenda of the meeting,” he said. Whatever happens at the summit, NATO has long-term plans for Kyiv either way.
Stoltenberg said he discussed a “multi-year support initiative” with Zelensky to make Ukraine’s armed forces more interoperable with NATO. “It is a testament to NATO’s long-term commitment to Ukraine. NATO stands with you today, tomorrow, and for as long as it takes,” Stoltenberg said.
The NATO chief’s visit to Ukraine comes as there’s no end in sight to the war. Pentagon documents that were allegedly leaked by Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira revealed the US doesn’t think peace talks will happen this year and that Ukraine can’t regain any significant territory in a planned counteroffensive.
Stoltenberg acknowledged that he doesn’t know how long the war will last. “We do not know when this war will end. But we know that Russian aggression is a toxic pattern that must be stopped,” he said.
NATO’s plans for Ukraine will prolong the war as the alliance’s support for the country was one of Moscow’s main motives for invading. Before launching its attack on Ukraine, Russia sought a guarantee from the US that Kyiv wouldn’t ever join NATO, but the Biden administration refused to engage on the issue.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reaffirmed on Thursday that preventing Ukrainian NATO membership is one of Moscow’s war goals. “Of course, because, otherwise, this will pose a serious, significant threat for our country’s security,” he said.
**Stoltenberg acknowledged that he doesn’t know how long the war will last. “We do not know when this war will end. But we know that Russian aggression is a toxic pattern that must be stopped,” he said.**
A toxic pattern that includes breaking up an ethnic conflict in Georgia, then leaving. And all those times they didn’t actually meddle in our elections.
Unlike the USA’s obviously very healthy pattern of invasions, illegal regime change, extra judicial assassination and terrorist bombings. Dozens in the time it’s taken Russia to invade two neighbors. Obviously, their methodology and process regarding murdering millions of foreign people in their own lands are severely underdeveloped and dysfunctional compared to ours.
…Inhale…. Stoltenberg, Stoltenberg, stoltenberg….. The more that NATO expands, the more pissed off everybody seems to get. What good is such an alliance, if it potentially means we have to go to war to protect it?…Exhale…
NATO is a US protection racket learned from the Mafia , the more you get to protect the more money you make .
Well said, well said.
To protect Dollar Hegemony, base>superstructure. Ukraine has provided a million man army, … which the US, on its own, could never do, not even close. When NATO ‘s gone, the US will suffer the same fate as Argentina, … only worse.
That’s the whole irony of charter 5, one in all in equals death to everyone on the planet. No NATO anymore
Dr Strangeloves Euro nephew. Weird man
12 March 1999 – NATO moved to Russian border. Poland, Czechia and Hungary became the members of NATO.
24 March 1999 – NATO started bombing Yugoslavia.
7 August 1999 – Wahhabi radical Islamist army (“freedom fighters” supported by Saudi Arabia and NATO) attacked Dagestan.
9 August 1999 – Yeltsin appointed Putin prime minister of Russia.
31 December 1999 – Yeltsin resigned and Putin, as the second person in Russian state hierarchy, became acting president of Russia.
26 March 2000 – Putin elected as president of Russia.
So, we may confirm that thanks to American military expansionism, Russia became great again.
LOL!
And Putin, the man of Destiny.
Not one of destiny but not the bumbling idiot we are being told by the usual suspects that learned to lie during our last few wars.
He’s the man in the cockpit to determine the direction of the next era … and he knows it. That’s as good as Charles Martel.
Between China and the most populist nation in the world; India
I do believe they might differ on who might be in cockpit….lol.
He managed to accomplish something which looked unachievable. After 7 years of disastrous rule of Yeltsin and his pro-oligarchy government, Russia was on the brink of collapse. Americans also contributed a lot, encouraging corruption and promoting their agents into the state institutions. It looked unavoidable that communists or close to them people would take the power and cancel the privatization of early 1990th which could eventually make the situation even more catastrophic. Then NATO started behave extremely aggressive. Yeltsin looked for someone who could cope with the problems and also would remain loyal to the oligarchy. In May 1999, in the middle of NATO war against Yugoslavia, he appointed Stepashin as prime minister. In August Stepashin told that Russia can’t keep North Caucasus and it would be better to leave it. Then appeared Putin and fixed everything. In November Grozny was surrounded, in December communists and their allies failed to take majority in Parliament. Then Putin appointed religious leader of Chechia Akhmad Kadyrov as chief of the administration of Chechen Republic and soon Chechnya turned from Wahhabism to traditional Islam. Putin himself is practicing Christian and with God’s help, he solved all the problems. Now not only Christians and Muslims see him as their leader but even many Judaists sided with him against Satanic imperialism.
Thanks for this, M. I need to read more on it. Putin’s record of achievement is indeed remarkable, justifying historical stature far above his peers at home and abroad.
Perhaps when the western press and politicians proclaimed Russia was not “great” after the breakup it was just the predictable language that politicians use?
I really take acception at accepting one description from them (Russia is just a paper tiger on the cusp of complete societal breakdown) and now the same folks proclaim it has risen again and wants to take over the world….. which I’m leaning towards being a complete lie as well.
How Much More Should America Give Europe to Fund Their Own Defense?
“In Kyiv, NATO Chief Says Ukraine’s ‘Rightful Place’ Is in the Alliance”
“On Thursday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg made his first visit to Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion last year and declared that Kyiv’s “rightful place” is as a member of the Western military alliance.”
The real question is why does NATO even exist. This organization outlived it’s usefulness in 1991.
NATO’s only success was keeping France and Germany from going to war against each other again.
Other than that, NATO exists to suck money from America and keep people like Jens Stoltenberg and his staff employed.
p.s. For the uneducated mostly Americans Jens Stoltenberg is NOT a military general. The press loves to place the word general in front of his name as if he is a military man. He was a corporal serving his minimum couple of years as a youth in Norway. Much like a German corporal who became a politician in the 1930s and 1940s.
Notice how his name and title is hyphenated to make his name look like a general in the article above: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg!!!
Nah, NATO had nothing to do with keeping Germany and France at peace, that is purely because of EU and would NATO not exist there would not be any difference.
And when NATO loses this war Sec-Gen Stoltenberg will become non-entity jens. All he’s got is his mouth; and he’s using it for all its worth in a desperate attempt to salvage his identity.
Don’t forget his knees. They’re indispensable as well!
Macron and his proposed EU army to displace NATO is really looking like a good idea.
Ukraine really is Europe’s problem and with all their recent military experience against the Russian bear they could lead Macron’s army against those pesky citizens of him that prefer democracy over his edicts from above that they must work for their masters longer before they retire (can’t raise taxes on Macron’s friends can we?)
We’d be home and Europe can play army.
More importantly, the USA is becoming less of an ally to Europe every day. This is like running a neighborhood watch with a bad landlord who also happens to murder more of your neighbors than Ted Bundy.
I look at more the nations of the EU and their economic interests always turning towards the USA (the stupid young cousin) to do the dirty work and “run” things in the open, while it’s more their wants we try to meet.
It’s so we can tell the US population we run things and do it in their interests while it is at the end to make the world safe for our wonderful global corporations over their eeeevil ones.
NATO is really Europe’s army (and jobs program) but we get to pay for it because you never know if Stalin is really dead and not just waiting to resurect the USSR.
Lenin was the dangerous one. Stalin just took what he built and killed millions of people. What’s he going to do, arm wrestle Putin for the remnants?
Undead Lenin would probably start organizing new revolutions. And the world is primed for an alternative to slowly being turned into NEW FLAMIN’ HOT SOYLENT XTREME.
I’m sure there’s a low budget movie in there somewhere.
“Lenin would probably start organizing new revolutions” – Bolshevik coup was organized on German and other sponsors money in time of war between Germany and Russia. It was possible only because Kerensky removed all loyal to the old regime military units from Petrograd and instead of them deployed Latvian troops which acted as fifth column.
You are right about Stalin. He cleared his way to power when Bolshevik regime was already well established.
Antiwar had a good article a while back on how after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the defense industry lobbied hard for expansion, not for threat, but so that they could continue profit selling to new members.
So, we keep our capitalistic system in play, to achieve our nefarious aims (ends?)…. Profits over people, war to achieve dominance and on and on it goes. Time for a paradigm shift.
missed it, but yup – even mainstream press noted it at time – as i’ve linked several times here:
nyt, “ARMS CONTRACTORS SPEND TO PROMOTE AN EXPANDED NATO, 1998
“American arms manufacturers, who stand to gain billions of dollars in sales of weapons, communication systems and other military equipment if the Senate approves NATO expansion, have made enormous investments in lobbyists and campaign contributions to promote their cause in Washington.
“The end of the cold war has shrunk the arms industry and forced it to diversify.
“But expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization — first to Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, then possibly to more than a dozen other countries — would offer arms makers a new…hugely lucrative market.”
AND:
nyt, “Arms Makers See Bonanza In Selling NATO Expansion,” 1997
Plus domestic electoral calculations – ensuring a conservative east european midwest vote – caused Clinton to ignore some of his own advisors and push expansion:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/04/15/clintons-revisionism-on-nato-expansion/
If there had been a segment of a country perpetually being bombed by its own country, who felt an alliance with US culture and wished to separate from its government, the US would have invaded and called it a humanitarian mission against terrorism or some other euphemism. Since Russia did it, it is characterized as Hitler-like. You gotta love how effective propaganda is. I’m not saying Russia is right in all of this, but the US and NATO as saviors of righteousness is pretty rich.
They’re ‘peacekeepers’ if we send troops; if they send troops they are ‘occupiers’. If we send civilians they are ‘aid workers’; if they send civilians they’re ‘human shields’. It’s Propaganda 101, and the sooner the unwashed masses learn its vocabulary the better.
I prefer Macron’s vision of an EU army to replace much of NATO if not it completely.
If that European NATO leader sincerely believes this than he should jump on board with Macron, get rid of NATO whose mission died with the USSR and get that EU army going with Ukraine with all of its recent military experience leading them to glory without the US involved at all.
The American public has been prepped by the media. Movies, such as Red Dawn, planted in the minds of Americans that the Soviet Union was evil, that we are the benevolent protector of the world, that the Soviet Union should never become a part of the Western alliance, is forever an enemy. The mother of all boogeymen. How dare the Soviet Union to dissolve, then wish to become a part of the Western alliance, be an equal. So we showed them, enticing nation after nation to NATO, to encircle Russia, to humiliate Russia, ignoring all red lines. I think there are enough people in Washington who realize the folly, but cannot shake the need for the MIC money, and so will continue on the same path. It is so ridiculous. It is so dangerous.
Stoltenberg is part of the problem not the solution
Humans, unlike virtually all primates (if not all) need enemies in the form of the “Other”.
Humans and ants – two species which routinely indulge in war.
Meanwhile, Russia asked to join NATO and was refused.
NATO’s Prostitute in chief.
stooge not hooker
We need warnings before romance photos between Zelensky and his working girls are displayed.
This just ensures that Putin cannot allow an independent Ukraine to survive this war.
This is not a good choice for the guys losing the war.
There is an end in sight. The West just refuses to see it.
The oncoming bus is still bearing down, as they dance in the street.
https://www.theinteldrop.org/2023/03/14/horrific-slaughter-russia-finally-admits-to-destroying-natos-deep-underground-command-bunker-in-kiev/
Horrific Slaughter: Russia Finally Admits to Destroying NATO’s Deep Underground Command Bunker in Kiev
https://www.theinteldrop.org/2023/04/22/confirmed-by-pentagon-leak-russian-hypersonic-missiles-wipe-out-us-nato-secret-command-in-kiev-dozens-of-top-us-officers-vaporized-march-9/
Confirmed by Pentagon Leak: Russian Hypersonic Missiles Wipe Out US/NATO Secret Command in Kiev, Dozens of Top US Officers Vaporized (March 9)
What is still left Ukraine will need NATO to keep it prom being altogether claimed by its own members…
Russia gave Ukraine a right hook for proposing to join Ukraine. Now comes the Stooge in chief and proposes that Ukraine belongs in NATO.
They really want a beating.
https://www.rt.com/russia/575218-ukraine-weapons-cbs-hersh/
West knows Ukraine weapons leaking to black market – Seymour Hersh
Sudan?
Why worry about a congressional and parlimentary authorization when Ukraine is an easy sell?