We saw this war coming; brutality in Grozny, invasion of Georgia; war in Ukraine did not start last February, said NATO Secretary General at the Annual Conference of the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise

“Today, this new reality is most visible through President Putin"s war of aggression against Ukraine. The brutality has shocked many. But there is no reason to be surprised. We saw this war coming. It is part of a pattern where Moscow uses military force to achieve its political goals.

The brutality in Grozny. The invasion of Georgia. The bombing of Aleppo. And the war in Ukraine did not start last February. It started in 2014. With Russia"s annexation of Crimea and the attacks in Eastern Ukraine.

But it is not only this pattern that did not surprise us. At NATO, we also had precise intelligence about the build-up of Russian forces along the border and their concrete plans. We made this information public and warned about a possible invasion for months. We repeatedly made significant political and diplomatic efforts to prevent war. But President Putin still chose to attack.

NATO was prepared. Since 2014, we have carried out the largest restructuring of the alliance since the end of the Cold War. Deployed more NATO troops in our member countries. Increased the readiness of our forces. Established new defence domains, such as cyber. And not least, NATO Allies have been investing more in defence. In addition, Finland and Sweden are on their way to join NATO.

Hours after the invasion, we activated our defence plans and significantly increased our military presence, from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. We now have even more soldiers on high alert. This is not to provoke a conflict, but to prevent the war in Ukraine from becoming a full-blown war between NATO and Russia. And to remove any room for misunderstandings and misjudgements in Moscow about our ability and willingness to defend NATO territory. Strong defence secures peace”, - said Jens Stoltenberg.