Stoltenberg defends sending arms to Ukraine as "the fastest way to achieve peace"

BRUSSELS, 30 Dec. (DPA/EP) -

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg advocated sending more weapons to Ukraine on Thursday as the fastest way to achieve peace in Europe.

"It may seem like a paradox, but military support for Ukraine is the fastest path to peace," the Norwegian told the German agency DPA in an interview at the end of the year.

According to Stoltenberg, the best way to ensure Ukraine prevails as an independent democratic state and achieve a negotiated peaceful solution is to provide weapons, as "it is the only way" to convince President Vladimir Putin that he will not achieve his goal of taking control. from Ukraine.

Asked about the possibility that Russia is trying to slow down the war to prepare for a new offensive in the spring, as the Secretary General of the Atlantic Alliance himself predicted, Stoltenberg has warned of the importance of preparing for a long-term war.

"There are no indications that President Putin has changed his general objective of this war. This is to control Ukraine. They have mobilized many new troops. Many of them are already trained," he stressed.

"This is not over. Wars are unpredictable, but we have to prepare for the long term and also for new Russian offensives. We must not underestimate Russia," added the NATO secretary general.

In this sense, he has defended his thesis that "nothing will be the same as before" in terms of the relationship of the countries of the European Union with Russia.

"The end of the war cannot mean a total return to normality. The type of relations that there will be with Russia in the future will depend on Russia's behavior," he said days after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz suggested the possibility of cooperation in matters of economy between Germany and Russia if the war ends.

"I think it's hard to imagine that we'll go back to being so dependent on critical strategic raw materials like energy. Because the dependence on Russia has created attack points that Russia is now trying to use to prevent us from supporting Ukraine. The dependence on gas has made us made them vulnerable," Stoltenberg told DPA.