On the second anniversary of Russiaʼs full-scale war against Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg assured that Ukraine will become a member of the North Atlantic Alliance.
He said this during a speech on the occasion of the second anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
"Today marks two years since Russian tanks invaded Ukraine. The beginning of the largest war in Europe after the Second World War. Let me start by honoring all those brave Ukrainians who died or were wounded defending their Motherland," he said at the beginning of his speech.
According to him, the situation on the battlefield remains extremely difficult, and Putin has not given up his goal of seizing Ukraine.
"Ukraine did not fall apart in a few weeks, as many feared. You recaptured half of the territory captured by Russia. Pushed Russia away from a large part of the Black Sea. And they inflicted great losses on the Russian troops," noted the Secretary General of the Alliance.
He emphasized that, above all, Ukraine maintains its freedom and independence, which became possible thanks to the courage and determination of Ukrainians and the great military and economic support of NATO allies.
Stoltenberg stressed that in recent days and weeks, NATO members have announced billions of dollars in new aid packages covering key capabilities such as artillery ammunition, air defense and gunboats, F-16 equipment and parts, drones and mine clearance equipment..
"Support is on the way," he said.
According to him, Putin started the war because he wanted to close the door to NATO and deprive Ukraine of the right to choose its own path, but he achieved the exact opposite: Ukraine is now closer to NATO than ever.
- Russia launched a war against Ukraine in 2014, when it occupied Crimea and parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. On February 24, 2022, the occupiers began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine from the northern, eastern and southern directions.
- In April 2022, the Defense Forces expelled the occupiers from the northern regions of Ukraine, and in the fall de-occupied parts of the Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Kharkiv regions. On June 5, 2023, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine announced that the Defense Forces had gone on the offensive in some directions. Later there were reports of the de-occupation of settlements in the east and south. In October 2023, the occupiers attacked Avdiivka.