NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg: Ukraine Finds ‘Rightful Place’ in NATO Alliance

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NATO leader Jens Stoltenberg visited Kyiv, Ukraine and declared that the country should really be part of the military alliance. He also promised to give more help to them. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked Mr. Stoltenberg to ask NATO countries for even more support, like airplanes, artillery and armored equipment.

The Russian government has given different reasons for starting a war, but they said again this week that stopping Ukraine from becoming part of NATO is still important. They say it is because being in the alliance would be a risk to their own country.

In 2008, NATO’s leaders promised that one day Ukraine would join them, and the head of NATO – Stoltenberg – had repeated this many times even through the war. However, there isn’t a plan or timeline yet for Ukraine to become part of NATO.

NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg said that Ukraine should become part of the NATO family. Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy said he was happy to be invited to a meeting in Lithuania and asked for a plan on how Ukraine can become a member of NATO. The US also sent its powerful Patriot guided missile system to help protect Ukraine. Meanwhile, the top prosecutor of Ukraine spoke about Russian atrocities.

The leaders of an alliance (group) need to decide what kind of support they will give Ukraine, such as wanting it to become a member one day. The leader of Ukraine and the head of this alliance also discussed how they can help Ukraine stay safe while working towards becoming a part of the alliance. Lastly, the Ukrainian official said that their country would launch a counteroffensive when ready.

NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg said they are helping Ukraine transition from old, Soviet equipment and plans to join NATO standards. This will give them full approval from the alliance and make sure that their gear works with the other nations’. Denmark and Netherlands have just promised to give Ukraine 14 updated battle tanks by 2024. NATO is willing to stick with Ukraine for as long as it takes!

Somebody said that more countries are going to give Ukraine some help with weapons – like tanks and guns – at a meeting on Friday.

The fighting between both sides has been really intense for months, but the ones helping Ukraine recently gave them powerful weapons. It’s expected that they will start their attack in the coming weeks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that if Ukraine tries to take back any Moscow-occupied places, Russia will use every kind of power it has, even nuclear weapons. NATO is not in Ukraine at the moment, but its leader Stoltenberg still speaks up for Ukraine during the war.

In the past year, many international leaders have travelled to Kyiv. The former Norwegian prime minister was one of them. NATO was created to stop the Soviet Union from gaining power and they worryingly feared that a big war involving nuclear weapons would break out with Russia. But as Western countries granted tanks, fighter jets, and missiles to Ukraine, high-level visits to Kyiv became frequent.

Russia’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov said that one of the reasons why they are having a military operation is to stop Ukraine from joining NATO. He also added that if Ukraine became part of NATO it would make Russia feel unsafe and be a great threat to its security.

Finland recently joined an important alliance called NATO, which made a big difference in Europe’s security arrangement after the Cold War. As much as NATO was not created to harm Russia, this move still greatly upset its leader Vladimir Putin.

By joining NATO, Finland has doubled the length of Russia’s border with this powerful security alliance. Sweden is also likely to join before US President Joe Biden visits Vilnius in July.

NATO is making sure that it can defend its countries so that Russian leader Putin won’t attack anyone. This means that if there’s an attack on one member country, then all the other members will consider it to be an attack on them too.

On Friday, Stoltenberg is going to Germany to join a meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about Ukraine’s safety. The event will take place at the Ramstein Air Base and this group is responsible for providing military help to Ukraine.

The Ukraine Space Agency announced on Thursday that a bright light seen in the sky overnight was likely a meteor. People from nearby cities, including Kyiv, saw this flash and heard an explosion. An air-raid alarm also went off in Kyiv.

Check out https://bigbignews.net/russia-ukraine to read all the latest news about the war happening between Russia and Ukraine.