NATO will stand with Ukraine up to the day in which we will have them sitting around the table for a long-lasting peace, a senior official from the military alliance has told the BBC.
Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chair of NATO's military committee since January, added from an operational point of view he considered the Russia-Ukraine war was bogged down, and it was almost time to sit and talk because it's a waste of lives.
Pointing to the fact that Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 had resulted in two more countries joining the Western alliance - Finland and Sweden - Adm Dragone described the war as a strategic failure for Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite recent slow, incremental advances by Russia on the battlefield.
They will not get a friendly or puppet government like in Belarus. Putin will not succeed.
Asked if European nations were prepared to keep going with supporting Ukraine's defense, he said they were. It was beneficial, he believed that they had had something of a wake-up call and were now taking charge of their own defense.
In June, NATO members agreed to raise their defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035.
On Russia's recent announcement about long-range, nuclear-powered weapons, the former Italian chief of defense staff downplayed the threat, stating, We are not threatened by them; we are just ready to defend our 32 nations and our one billion people. We are a nuclear alliance.
Regarding the risk of future invasions or attacks, he noted that if there was to be anywhere, it would likely be the Baltic states. However, he assured that NATO would respond under Article 5, which signifies that an attack on one member is an attack on all.
Concluding his remarks, he expressed confidence in the unity of NATO, stating, The alliance is reliable, it is mature, there is a cohesion which is our center of gravity.
