NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stressed on Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is the aggressor in the offensive launched in Ukraine and that in his speech on Tuesday he demonstrated that “this is preparation for a new war.”
At a joint press conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell at the Atlantic Alliance Headquarters in Brussels, Stoltenberg deplored Tuesday’s State of the Nations speech by Putin and his statement that that Russia is suspending participation in New START, the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty with the United States.
Reacting to Putin’s speech, which accused the West of wanting to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Ukraine and destroy the country “once and for all”, arguing that the Western threat of Russia justifies the invasion of Ukraine, Stoltenberg stressed that “a year ago, President Putin launched an illegal war against a peaceful neighbor.”