NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of making a “big mistake” by invading Ukraine, as leaders gathered to discuss overhauling the alliance’s eastern defences.
“President Putin has made a big mistake and that is to launch a war against an independent sovereign nation. He has underestimated the strength of the Ukrainian people, the bravery of the Ukrainian people and their armed forces,” Stoltenberg said ahead of the start of a summit in Brussels.
Stoltenberg said the leaders of the US-led military alliance would “address the need for a reset of our deterrence and defence in the longer term”, starting with agreeing new deployments to eastern members Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria.
He added that any use of chemical weapons by Russia in its war in Ukraine could cause contamination in NATO territory.
“Any use of chemical weapons would fundamentally change the nature of the conflict – it would be a blatant violation of international law, and it will have widespread and severe consequences,” Stoltenberg said ahead of an extraordinary summit of NATO leaders.
“The seriousness of using chemical weapons, of course, becomes even more obvious knowing that there is a risk always for contamination … we can see the spread of chemical agents also into NATO territory,” he said.
Stoltenberg did not say how NATO would respond to such an attack.
Source: A News Turkey
