Tue. Nov 5th, 2024
Occasional Digest - a story for you

NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg says he went to sleep on the eve of February 24, 2022 knowing full well the carnage that would be unleashed within the coming hours.

Months of warnings from the head of the Western military alliance had hardened into certainty that Russian President Vladimir Putin would launch his all-out attack on Ukraine that day.

“I went to bed. But it was a very short night because I knew that at some stage, within hours, someone was going to wake me up — and that was exactly what happened,” he said, one week before one year of war in Ukraine is marked.

“Around four o’clock, I was called by my chief of staff, and he just briefly told me that they have started, meaning the invasion has started. No surprise, because we knew.”

While many around the world held out hope until the end that Moscow would not risk a full-scale assault against Ukraine, there was no doubt for the NATO secretary-general that Putin was set to move.

“It’s possible to be shocked by the brutality of the war. But there’s no way to be surprised, because this was really something that was predicted months ahead of the invasion,” he said.

‘Putin wants a different Europe’

Now, almost a year into a war that has cost tens of thousands of lives and up-ended Europe’s security, Mr Stoltenberg warned that NATO must be ready for a new era of stand-off with Russia that could last a long time.

“President Putin wants a different Europe, wants a Europe where he can control neighbours, where he can decide what countries can do,” he said.

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