North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has warned Russia’s Vladimir Putin that he risks provoking the entire military alliance if he dare it by attacking its supply lines of weapons and ammunition to Ukraine.
“We are stepping up to send an even stronger message to President Putin that an attack on one ally will trigger the response from the whole alliance,” Mr. Stoltenberg said in an interview with CBC News.
“The allies are helping Ukraine uphold their right for self defence, which is enshrined in the UN charter. Russia is the aggressor and Ukraine is defending itself”, said Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg
“If there is any attack against any NATO country, NATO territory, that will trigger Article 5,” Stoltenberg said in an interview with CBC News.
Article 5 is a self-defence provision in NATO’s founding treaty, which states that an attack on one NATO member is an attack on all 30 member countries.
“I’m absolutely convinced President Putin knows this and we are removing any room for miscalculation, misunderstanding about our commitment to defend every inch of NATO territory,” Stoltenberg said.
The Secretary General said there is a clear distinction between supply lines inside Ukraine and those operating outside of it.
“There is a war going on in Ukraine and, of course, supply lines inside Ukraine can be attacked,” he said.
Jens Stoltenberg also said that Russia might use chemical weapons following its invasion of Ukraine and that such a move would be a war crime, according to an interview in German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.
“In recent days, we have heard absurd claims about chemical and biological weapons laboratories,” Stoltenberg was quoted by Welt am Sonntag as saying, adding that the Kremlin was inventing false pretexts to justify what could not be justified.
“Now that these false claims have been made, we must remain vigilant because it is possible that Russia itself could plan chemical weapons operations under this fabrication of lies. That would be a war crime,” Stoltenberg was quoted as saying.
Stoltenberg said NATO’s message to Russia is that “they have to end the war, that we will continue to support Ukraine and that we continue to impose unprecedented sanctions.”
