NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the alliance aims to strengthen Ukraine before holding peace talks with Russia. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Sputnik Kazakhstan.
"The only thing we can do is support Ukraine in the fight and ensure that they are as strong as possible when these negotiations begin," he said in an interview with the Financial Times.
Rutte also acknowledged that the alliance has reached a ceiling on the growth of military spending. "We are reaching the maximum possibility of using these funds (increasing defense spending to 5% of GDP - ed.). Because we still need to find personnel for service, as well as purchase defense industry products," Rutte said.
According to him, the additional $250 billion spent by allies on defense over the past two years corresponds to the ability to quickly increase spending.