“If Russia wins this war (Russian President Vladimir) Putin will have confirmation that violence is working. So other bordering countries could be next,” Stoltenberg said, referring to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in progress since February 24.
He underlined the importance of supporting Ukraine during a speech on the island of Utøya, near Oslo, during a summer camp for the youth of the Norwegian Labor Party – from which he hails.
“A world where Putin gets his way using military forces is a much more dangerous world for us,” he added.
Ukraine is preparing for a counter-offensive in the south of the country, Stoltenberg continued, describing the current course of the conflict as a “brutal and bloody war of attrition”.
The NATO secretary general also warned Norway of the increased threat posed by Russia to the Atlantic Alliance, given the war in Ukraine, near its eastern borders.
Former Norwegian Prime Minister (from 2000 to 2001 and then from 2005 to 2013), Mr. Stoltenberg also chaired the Labor Youth League, the youth organization affiliated with the Norwegian Labor Party. He attended the summer camp in Utøya.
In 2011, Norwegian neo-Nazi mass killer Anders Behring Breivik carried out a massacre at summer camp after blowing up a car bomb in Oslo in a double terror attack that left 77 people dead.