NATO’s unprecedented and “essential” support for Ukraine continues, the alliance chief said on Tuesday.

“Our relationship is a very close partnership, it’s a relationship where NATO allies have shown their willingness to support Ukraine in an unprecedented way,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said. .

“When the invasion happened, NATO was not taken by surprise. In fact, we have been preparing, we have been ready for situations like this since we started the great adaptation NATO in 2014,” Stoltenberg told reporters in Bucharest, Romania. .

Stoltenberg reiterated that the war started in 2014, referring to Moscow’s annexation of Crimea, with Canadian, British and American NATO troops helping train Ukrainian forces that year.

“The war did not start in February of this year, the war started in the spring of 2014. And since then, NATO has implemented the greatest reinforcement, the greatest adaptation of our alliance since the end of the cold war, with more presence in the eastern part of our alliance”.

“So the reality was that when the invasion took place in February this year – compared to 2014 – Ukrainian troops and armed forces were much better trained, much more numerous, much better equipped and much better led,” said Stoltenberg. . “That’s one of the main reasons they were able to fight back.”

Of course, the gains and the victories that the Ukrainians achieved belong to the bravery, the courage of the Ukrainian troops and armed forces,” Stoltenberg added. “But it was essential that they received the support of partners of NATO, and we will continue to do so.”

“The main objective now is to support Ukraine, to ensure that President Putin does not win, but rather that Ukraine wins as a sovereign and independent nation in Europe.”

“It’s a mix, in part, of more presence in the east, we’ve already doubled the number of groups, but we’re also working on how to quickly scale those battalion battlegroups to size levels of brigade.”

“So the combination of more presence, more troops assigned, more preparedness, pre-positioned equipment, all of this is going to enhance our ability to react and act.

“The point of all of this is to provide credible deterrence and defense every day, 24 hours a day. And in doing so, we are not causing conflict, we are preserving peace, preventing conflict.”

Stoltenberg added that the alliance is working to develop the agreement reached at the NATO summit held in Madrid earlier this year.