He said this in an interview with the Financial Times. We will remind you that there were approximately 4 months left before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which took place on February 24, 2022.
Stoltenberg recalled the first conversation with Zelensky after the invasion: “It was difficult”
An FT reporter asked NATO’s foreign secretary when he learned of the Kremlin’s alleged invasion. “Mid-autumn 2021,” he answered. This is about a month before the US released intelligence reports about Russia’s massive military build-up. But some allies, such as French President Emmanuel Macron and German President Olaf Scholz, were not convinced.
“Fundamentally, the difference wasn’t the facts, it was the intelligence. It was the intent. And I told them, it doesn’t really matter whether you think it’s 90 percent or 10 percent… We need to prepare for it to happen “, Stoltenberg noted.
When the invasion began, NATO warned that Kyiv would fall within days. But the capital of Ukraine resisted. “It was a coin toss. If Kyiv fell and they took it [президента Володимира] Zelensky, to which they were very close, then the whole war would have been completely different,” he said, noting that he managed to talk with the Ukrainian president only two days later.
When they finally spoke, “that phone call was pretty tough.” In part, Stoltenberg recalls, this is due to the fear that Zelensky will soon be “caught or killed.” “But a large part of the conversation was about the no-fly zone. He wanted a no-fly zone. And I couldn’t give him a no-fly zone,” said the former secretary general. He explained why: “The reality is that from the very beginning I formulated NATO’s approach: to support Ukraine, but not to be part of the conflict.”
Ukraine’s entry into NATO with the occupied territories: “There are options”
The US and Germany have led the opposition to NATO membership for war-torn Ukraine, arguing that the alliance’s Article 5 on mutual defense would mean immediate war with Russia.
“There are ways to solve this problem. When there is a line that is not necessarily an internationally recognized border,” he said. Jens Stoltenberg added that it’s dangerous to make comparisons because no parallels are 100 percent correct, but “the United States has security guarantees to Japan. But they don’t cover the Kuril Islands, which Japan considers Japanese territory controlled by Russia.”
“West Germany saw East Germany as part of greater Germany. They didn’t have an embassy in East Berlin. But NATO, of course, only protected West Germany… When there’s a will, there are ways to find a solution. But you need a line that defines where Article 5 is involved, and Ukraine must control the entire territory up to this border,” he said.
Stoltenberg also added that he regrets that Ukraine was not provided with sufficient military support much earlier. “I think we all had to admit, we should have given them more weapons before the invasion. And we should have given them more sophisticated weapons, sooner, after the invasion. I take some of the responsibility,” said the former head of the Alliance.
He added that sending lethal weapons was a big debate. “Most of the Allies were against it, even before the invasion… They were very afraid of the consequences. I’m proud of what we did, but it would have been a great advantage if it had started earlier. It might even have prevented the invasion, or at least made it much more difficult for [Росії] what they did,” said Jens Stoltenberg.
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