President Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine is causing death and destruction every day, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated at the press conference on Tuesday ahead of the Extraordinary meeting of NATO Ministers of Defence.

According to him , “It has shocked the world and shaken the international order”.

NATO Secretary General’s remarks as delivered:

“For months, we have exposed Russia’s long list of lies. They claimed they did not plan to invade Ukraine. But they did. They claimed they were withdrawing their troops.
But they sent in even more. They claim to be protecting civilians. But they are killing civilians. Now they are making absurd claims about biological labs and chemical weapons in Ukraine. This is just another lie. And we are concerned that Moscow could stage a false flag operation, possibly including chemical weapons. The Ukrainian people are fighting bravely. Defending their homes. And their future. And we must support them.

Tomorrow we will be joined by the Ukrainian defence minister Oleksii Reznikov. And our other partners Georgia, Finland, Sweden, and the European Union. The whole world has condemned this senseless war. NATO Allies, the European Union and other countries have introduced unprecedented sanctions on Russia. For many years, NATO Allies have trained tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops. Many of them are now fighting on the front-lines. Allies have also provided significant quantities of critical equipment. Including anti-tank and air defence weapons, drones, ammunition and fuel.  This training and equipment is helping Ukraine to defend itself.

Ukraine has a fundamental right to self-defence, enshrined in the UN Charter and NATO Allies and partners will continue to help Ukraine uphold that right by providing military equipment, and financial and humanitarian assistance.

NATO’s core task is to protect and defend all Allies. We have responded to the crisis quickly. Activating our defence plans, raising our readiness, and deploying the NATO Response Force for the first time for our collective defence. There are now hundreds of thousands of forces on heightened alert across the Alliance. One hundred thousand US troops in Europe. And around 40,000 troops under direct NATO command, mostly in the eastern part of the Alliance. Backed by major air and naval power. As well as air defences. The US is currently deploying Patriot batteries to Poland. And Germany and the Netherlands are also deploying Patriots to Slovakia. All of this sends an unmistakable message. An attack on one Ally will be met with a decisive response from the whole Alliance. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and its military integration with Belarus, create a new security reality on the European continent. So we need to reset our military posture for this new reality. Tomorrow, ministers will start an important discussion on concrete measures to reinforce our security for the longer term, in all domains. On land, this could include substantially more forces in the eastern part of the Alliance, at higher readiness, and with more prepositioned equipment. We will also consider major increases to our air and naval deployments. Strengthening our integrated air and missile defence. Reinforcing our cyber defences and holding more and larger exercises.

I expect we will task NATO’s military commanders to develop options for our Madrid Summit in June. Major reinforcements of our defence will require major increases in investment,” Jens Stoltenberg declared.