Robles assures that NATO sees a long war in Ukraine

The Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, has indicated this Wednesday that NATO is preparing for a long war in Ukraine, after the plans of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, of a quick war.

“We have to prepare for a long war. But everything is absolutely unpredictable“, assured Robles, without specifying more about the deadlines handled by the Atlantic Alliance.

In any case, the Minister of Defense has underlined that the scenario of war in Ukraine is due to the support provided by NATO to Ukraine and to the “heroic” resistance of the Ukrainian people.

Increased military spending

These statements have come after the meeting of NATO Defense Ministers, in which Robles confirmed to the partners of the Atlantic Alliance the intention of the Government of Spain to raise the military expenses.

“We have exposed the will of the Spanish Government to go gradually increased our budget until we reach 2%“, he has indicated, although he has avoided responding to the deadline set by Spain to achieve that goal.

Robles has assured that within NATO there is consensus on the need to increase investment in Defense in the face of the new security reality generated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Stoltenberg defends NATO’s position

For his part, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg insisted on Wednesday that the alliance will not deploy troops in Ukraine, although he has argued that the military support provided by the Alliance strengthens kyiv in the face of negotiations with Russia.

During the extraordinary meeting, the NATO defense ministers insisted on their willingness to do not escalate the conflict and not to deploy troops or air forces in Ukraine.

NATO political leader has again ruled out the option of applying a no-fly zoneas the Ukrainian authorities demand, something that in practice would mean shooting down Russian planes and causing a total war in Europe.

Of course, Stoltenberg has insisted that the allies remain firm in their efforts to military support to kyiv and has ensured that in this way NATO strengthens Ukraine in the negotiations it is holding with Russia in Belarus.

“We know that what they can achieve in the negotiating tableis closely linked to the situation on the battlefield,” said the former Norwegian prime minister.

He has stated that if kyiv now sees “steps in the right direction” in the talks is because “they have been able to respond to the Russian offensive”.

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In his opinion, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has underestimated the capacity of the Ukrainian Army and the courage of the Ukrainian people, emphasizing that after three weeks of war, Moscow has not achieved its goal of taking over the country.

In any case, Stoltenberg has asked not to launch the bells on the fly and has assured that Russia has the capacity to prolong the war and continue attacking cities, causing a lot of damage to the neighboring country.