Stoltenberg: Russian invasion could have been avoided if NATO had provided Ukraine with enough weapons after 2014.

Weapons for Ukraine should have been provided back in 2014 - former NATO Secretary General

Former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg believes that if the Alliance countries had provided Ukraine with weapons after the start of the Russian occupation in 2014, a full-scale war could have been avoided.

"The war didn't start in 2022, but in 2014 - with the illegal annexation of Crimea and the deployment of Russian troops to eastern Donbas in the summer of 2014. And NATO allies provided some support to Ukraine," he said in an interview with Politico, reported Ukrinform.

The former NATO Secretary General recalled that one of his first visits was to the NATO training center in Yavoriv in 2015.

"I worked hard to persuade NATO allies to do more, to provide more military support, more training. Some allies did, but it was relatively limited, and for many years it was very difficult because NATO's policy was that NATO should not provide lethal support to Ukraine," Stoltenberg explained.

According to him, "no one can say for certain, but... if we had armed Ukraine more after 2014, we could have prevented the Russian invasion - at least raised the threshold for a full-scale invasion".

If NATO countries had provided at least some of the weapons that were provided starting in 2022, "then perhaps really prevented the war, instead of supporting Ukraine's defense in war conditions," he added.