“I’m proud of what we have done, but it would have been a great advantage if it started earlier,” Jens Stoltenberg said. Ukraine’s

We should have given Ukraine more weapons earlier, says ex-NATO chief

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2024-10-05 17:00:02

“I’m proud of what we have done, but it would have been a great advantage if it started earlier,” Jens Stoltenberg said.

Ukraine’s allies should have supplied Kyiv with more arms before Moscow’s full-scale invasion to prevent the war, NATO’s former chief said Friday.

“If there’s anything I in a way regret and see much more clearly now is that we should have provided Ukraine with much more military support much earlier,” Jens Stoltenberg told the Financial Times. “I think we all have to admit, we should have given them more weapons pre-invasion.”

Stoltenberg, a former Norwegian prime minister, led NATO between 2014 and 2024, making him the second-longest-serving chief in the alliance’s history. Prior to Moscow’s full-scale invasion in early 2022, he said, “sending lethal weapons [to Ukraine] was a big discussion.”

“Most allies were against that, pre-invasion … they were very afraid of the consequences,” he said. “I’m proud of what we have done, but it would have been a great advantage if it started earlier.