Jens Stoltenberg has mentioned that the battle in Ukraine won’t finish till Russia “lays down its weapons”
The West should put together for “an extended battle” in Ukraine, NATO Secretary Normal Jens Stoltenberg declared on Sunday. Regardless of claiming to need a “fast peace” in Ukraine, Stoltenberg insisted that he nonetheless helps President Vladimir Zelensky’s objective of a navy victory over Russia.
“Most wars last more than anticipated once they first start,” Stoltenberg mentioned in an interview with Germany’s Funke media group. “Subsequently we should put together ourselves for an extended battle in Ukraine.”
In keeping with media experiences during the last two months, Western officers and navy planners have conceded that Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive towards Russian forces is unlikely to succeed, leaving the entrance traces principally unchanged as winter units in.
In keeping with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukraine has misplaced upwards of 71,000 males because the counteroffensive started in June. Regardless of this stark attrition price – with some models shedding 90% of their manpower, based on Ukrainian sources, Stoltenberg insisted that NATO will proceed to push for a navy, not a diplomatic, answer.
“We’re all wishing for a fast peace,” Stoltenberg mentioned. “However on the identical time we should recognise: if President Zelensky and the Ukrainians cease preventing, their nation will not exist. If President Putin and Russia lay down their weapons, we can have peace.”
After strolling away from a Turkish-brokered peace deal final April, Zelensky issued a decree forbidding all negotiations with Russia. Moreover, he has repeatedly vowed to retake the previous Ukrainian areas of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye, in addition to Crimea, the latter of which voted overwhelmingly to hitch the Russian Federation in 2014.
Zelensky’s stance is backed by Washington, the place officers have repeatedly insisted that solely the Ukrainian president can resolve when to hunt peace. On the identical time, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has condemned Putin for supposedly rejecting “significant diplomacy.”
Russia maintains that it’s open to a diplomatic answer to the battle, however that any peace deal must keep in mind the “new territorial actuality” – that Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, Zaporozhye, and Crimea won’t ever be ceded again to Ukraine. Moreover, Russian Overseas Minister Sergey Lavrov has mentioned negotiations could be held “not with Zelensky, who’s a puppet within the fingers of the West, however straight together with his masters.”
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