Ukraine prevailing over Russian aggression NATO's key task - Stoltenberg

NATO member states will participate in the reconstruction of Ukraine and the development of its security and defense institutions, but for now the most urgent task is to support Ukraine in its struggle against Russian aggression.

Without ensuring that Ukraine prevails in the war, all efforts to rebuild the nation as a democratic and sovereign European country would lose their sense. This was stated by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg today in Brussels during a discussion on the future of the Alliance as part of the NATO Youth Summit, reports the correspondent of Ukrinform.

"On the question about NATO's role in reconstruction of Ukraine after the war. The first thing I will say is that first of all, you need to ensure that Ukraine prevails. Because unless Ukraine prevails, there's nothing to reconstruct in the free and independent Ukraine. So the most immediate, the most important task now is to help Ukraine with military support as NATO Allies and NATO do. We need to sustain that. We need to make the support more predictable and more robust, and we are going to hopefully make decisions on that not least at the NATO Summit in July," Stoltenberg said.

He noted that the future recovery of Ukraine will be a very costly process. In this context, preventing destruction is cheaper than subsequent recovery. Therefore, the more capabilities the allies provide to Ukraine so that it can defend itself, the less effort will be required for the nation’s post-war recovery.

“Every air defense missile we can provide Ukraine will actually mean less damage, less destruction. And then also less need for reconstruction after the war. We must be able to help Ukraine prevail because it's important for Ukrainians. But also because every day this war drags on, of course, the more destruction and the more expensive, the more resource demanding it will be to do reconstruction afterwards," the head of the Alliance emphasized.

"The sooner Ukraine can prevail, the sooner this war can end with just a lasting peace where Ukraine prevails as a sovereign independent nation in Europe," Stoltenberg added.

He emphasized that NATO is already playing an important role in rebuilding defense and security institutions of Ukraine. Allies will continue this work so that Ukraine can not only rebuild its own capabilities, but also eventually become a full member of the Alliance. Stoltenberg recalled that important decisions in this regard were made during the Vilnius Summit last summer, the Allies shortened Ukraine's path to membership to one step, eliminating the need to implement the Membership Action Plan, created such an important political tool as the NATO-Ukraine Council, and adopted a program to increase the interoperability of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the forces of the Alliance.

"Interoperability is a difficult word for ensuring that Ukraine and NATO Allies can work together on communications and operations, on everything. And this program will help them now but will help them also in the future to build a future force, which is which is fully interoperable that can fully be integrated with NATO forces. So these are the things we have to do both in the short and long term to ensure Ukraine prevails," Stoltenberg noted.

As reported earlier, a NATO summit will be held in Washington on July 9-11, where one of the key issues will be strengthening the Alliance in the fight against modern-day challenges and increasing assistance to Ukraine.

Archive photo: President’s Office