It is up to Ukraine to decide when the conditions are right to join any negotiations after the Russian invasion, the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said on Thursday, emphasising the alliance’s unchanged stance after comments this week by a senior colleague, Reuters reports.
“It is the Ukrainians, and only the Ukrainians, who can decide when there are conditions in place for negotiations, and who can decide at the negotiating table what is an acceptable solution,” Stoltenberg said.
Speaking at a conference in the Norwegian town of Arendal, he added that Nato’s role was to support Ukraine.
The statement followed remarks by Stoltenberg’s chief of staff at Nato, Stian Jenssen, who on Tuesday said Ukraine may in the end give up territory to Russia as part of a deal to end the war. Jenssen subsequently said he regretted his comments.
“His (Jenssen’s) message, and which is my main message, and which is Nato’s main message, is, firstly, that Nato’s policy is unchanged – we support Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said.
Nato at its summit last month said it will extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the military alliance when “members agree and conditions are met”, and that the country has the right to choose its own path independently of Russia.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said while the outcome of the July Nato summit was good, it would have been ideal if Kyiv had received an outright invitation to join the western military alliance.