[Vladimer] Putin invaded Ukraine because he wanted less NATO on his borders, but he got the opposite, he got more weapons on his borders. Such a statement made the NATO Secretary General ahead of the Meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Bucharest, Romania.

“We made decisions on Ukraine, Georgia, on membership here at the NATO Summit in 2008. I was here myself at that time as Norwegian Prime Minister, so I remember that meeting very well. I first of all, I welcome that since then we have strengthened significantly our partnership with Georgia and with Ukraine. Something that has not least been demonstrated since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea. And since then, NATO Allies have delivered a lot of support to Ukraine.

And therefore also the Ukrainian Armed Forces were much stronger, much better equipped, much better led and much bigger, than they were in 2014. And that"s very much because of the support they have received from NATO Allies over these years. And we were prepared, when the invasion happened in February and then Allies stepped up further now with unprecedented level of support to Ukraine.

I expect that foreign ministers will at the meeting here in Bucharest today and tomorrow, reiterate that NATO’s door is open. And we have demonstrated that over the last years while allowing North Macedonia and Montenegro to become members and now also Finland and Sweden. So we have demonstrated that the decision in Bucharest that NATO’s door is open is something we live up to, not only in words, but also in deeds, by actually allowing more members to come into the Alliance”, - said Jens Stoltenberg.