Secretary General Stoltenberg: NATO to not deploy its forces either on Ukrainian land or in sky

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg states that the allies are united in the fact that the forces of the alliance will not be involved either on the ground or in the sky of Ukraine. The responsibility of the alliance is to ensure that this war does not go beyond Ukraine.

So he answered the question of journalists at a press conference on Wednesday in Brussels, as during an extraordinary meeting of the North Atlantic Council at the level of defense ministers, the allies raised the issue of ensuring a no-fly zone in the Ukrainian sky.

The Allies are united both in providing support for Ukraine and its right to self-defense, and united that NATO should not deploy its forces on the ground or airspace of Ukraine, because we have a responsibility to ensure that this conflict, this war does not escalate outside of Ukraine, Stoltenberg said, continuing: We see death, destruction, human suffering in Ukraine, but it will be even worse if NATO takes actions that turn this into a full-scale war between NATO and Russia.

Stoltenberg once again stressed that the position of the allies not to send NATO troops to Ukraine is the same.

He gave a similar answer to a question regarding Poland's proposal to send NATO troops as part of a peacekeeping mission. We support peace efforts, we call on Putin to withdraw troops, but we have no plans to deploy NATO forces on Ukrainian territory, Stoltenberg repeated.

At the same time, the Secretary General stated that peace is needed in Ukraine. Therefore, Russia and President Putin must stop the war and withdraw their troops. We support all efforts aimed at finding a solution, all efforts aimed at a diplomatic solution. We support and welcome the negotiations that are now underway between Ukraine and Russia. At the same time we support Ukraine, he continued.

Stoltenberg also believes that the results of the talks between Ukraine and Russia are closely linked to the situation on the battlefield. I am convinced that one of the reasons – and the Ukrainians say they see some steps in the right direction – is because they were able to repel a blow, that they were able to fight the forces of the Russian intervention. Alliance support for the Ukrainian armed forces is also very important in terms of what they can achieve at the negotiating table with Russia, the NATO Secretary General said.