NATO affirms no direct engagement in Ukraine, bolsters Eastern defences

- NATO has two tasks in this war. One is to support Ukraine to ensure that it prevails, and we do that by providing military support, training and equipment. The other task is to prevent this war from escalating beyond Ukraine and becoming a real conflict between NATO and Russia, - he announced on Tuesday in Brussels before a meeting with EU defence ministers.

As he emphasised, for this reason, the Alliance does not plan to send its forces to Ukraine or engage directly in the fight. Still, it focuses on increasing the military presence on NATO's eastern flank in the Baltic states, Romania, and Poland. - "to eliminate any margin of miscalculation by Moscow on our willingness to defend all allies, preventing thus an escalation beyond Ukraine," - he said.

- The fact that we are delivering equipment to Ukraine does not make NATO a party to the conflict. We have the right to support Ukraine without becoming part of the conflict, because we are helping Kiev uphold the right to self-defense, - he pointed out.