Jens Stoltenberg regrets that NATO did not do more to arm Ukraine before the invasion. In the next sentence, he starts talking about peace. The retrospective perspective seems to be a preparation for the fact that there must be a peace solution.

Stoltenberg says it should happen by making Ukraine as strong as possible. But he is not talking about Ukraine driving out the Russians.

“I regret that NATO did not do more to strengthen Ukraine earlier. If Ukraine had been militarily stronger, the threshold for Russia to attack would have been higher. But it’s impossible to say whether it would have been high enough,” he says.

Then he strikes a new note:

Stoltenberg recognises in the interview that the war in Ukraine will not be won on the battlefield.

“In order to bring this war to an end, sooner or later dialogue with Russia will have to be resumed,” he says.

“But it must be based on Ukrainian strength,” says Stoltenberg.

“I still believe in dialogue with Russia, combined with defence and deterrence. We need to be strong in order to have a meaningful dialogue,” he says.

This is a change of line from a Secretary General who until recently has defended Ukraine’s right to strike deep inside Russia.

Stoltenberg sits with the facts in hand and can apologise:

“Now we are sending military equipment to a war, when we could have sent military equipment to prevent a war,” says Stoltenberg in an interview with the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. (NTB)