DISINFO: Stoltenberg confirmed that Russia invaded Ukraine because of NATO
SUMMARY
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has clearly and repeatedly admitted that Putin decided to invade Ukraine because of NATO expansionism...In fact, Stoltenberg is simply stating a well-known fact: contrary to the official Western narrative, Putin did not invade Ukraine because he is evil and hates freedom, but because no great power ever allows foreign military threats to accumulate on its borders, including the United States.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the war in Ukraine. Since the beginning of its attack, Russia - the only country responsible for the invasion of Ukraine - has been coming up with different false explanations and pretexts for its aggression .
This claim is a manipulation of a quote from NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg taken from his speech at a joint meeting of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs on September 7. The Secretary General did not state that “NATO started the war in Ukraine.” Stoltenberg talked about the failure of the policies of Putin, who, on the eve of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, attempted to blackmail the Alliance, demanding that Eastern Europe be given to its sphere of influence.
It was in this context that Stoltenberg stated that Russia cannot veto the desire to join NATO of any sovereign independent state in Europe. The fact, said the NATO Secretary General, that Finland is already a member of the Alliance, and Sweden will soon become a member, shows that Putin’s aggressive war against Ukraine was a big strategic mistake.
“He wanted us to sign that promise, never to enlarge NATO. He wanted us to remove our military infrastructure in all Allies that have joined NATO since 1997, meaning half of NATO, all the Central and Eastern Europe, we should remove NATO from that part of our Alliance, introducing some kind of B, or second class membership. We rejected that. So he went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO, close to his borders. He has got the exact opposite. He has got more NATO presence in eastern part of the Alliance and he has also seen that Finland has already joined the Alliance and Sweden will soon be a full member,” Stoltenberg said.
Also Stoltenberg emphasised that Russia did not invade Ukraine only in 2022 but that the aggression of the Russian occupiers against peaceful Ukraine began in 2014 with the seizure of Crimea and parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The NATO Secretary General emphasized that “Russia has decided to control its neighbors, to try to reestablish their influence and,” but joining NATO is not an “anti-Russian provocation,” but a democratic, sovereign right of a nation to choose its own path.
Read similar cases about the Russian unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine, particular about NATO’s allegedly negative role in the war and about NATO waging a proxy war against Russia.