NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Russia’s Wagner mercenary group’s failed mutiny showed the Kremlin’s strategic error in attacking Ukraine.
After Wagner fighters halted a quick march on Moscow, retreated from Rostov, and returned to their bases late on Saturday under a deal that guaranteed their safety, Russia sought to restore normalcy on Monday.
The Kremlin said its commander, Yevgeny Prigozhin, will go to Belarus under the Lukashenko-mediated deal.
“The events over the weekend are an internal Russian matter, and yet another demonstration of the big strategic mistake that President (Vladimir) Putin made with his illegal annexation of Crimea and the war against Ukraine,” Stoltenberg told reporters in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Western countries are unsure what will happen next in the world’s largest nuclear power and its assault on Ukraine after the weekend’s remarkable developments.
Stoltenberg reiterated that NATO was watching Belarus and denounced Moscow’s nuclear weapons deployment there.
“We don’t see any indication that Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons, but NATO remains vigilant,” he added. NATO’s deterrent was strong enough to keep its people safe in a “more dangerous world.”
Stoltenberg reassured Kyiv of NATO’s assistance. “If Russia thinks it can intimidate us from supporting Ukraine, it will fail,” he warned. “We support Ukraine forever.”
Stoltenberg was in Lithuania for an exercise to test the rapid reinforcement of the German-led NATO battlegroup in the nation to the size of a brigade, a military formation of up to 5,000 troops, in case of heightened tensions or a conflict with Russia.
He said the drills showed NATO was ready to protect all allied territory.
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