NATO: 'not supporting Ukraine earlier' was a mistake

Former NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in an interview that the mistake was not providing sufficient support to Ukraine earlier. "We should have started this in 2014. If we had done so, I believe Ukrainians would control a larger part of their territory today, and we might even have prevented the full-scale invasion if we had armed and trained them between 2014 and the 2022 invasion," he said. In his statement, Rasmussen emphasized that expanding cooperation with Ukraine from 2014 to 2022, including training and arming, could have significantly changed the situation on the ground.

Context

Since 2014, after Petro Poroshenko was elected president, NATO has strengthened diplomatic support for Ukraine by organizing training programs, combat training, and well-considered diplomatic initiatives.