NATO will stand with Ukraine up to the day in which we will have them sitting around the table for a long-lasting peace, a senior official from the military alliance has told the BBC.
Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chair of NATO's military committee since January, added from an operational point of view he considered the Russia-Ukraine war was bogged down, and it was almost time to sit and talk because it's a waste of lives.
Pointing to the fact that Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 had resulted in two more countries joining the Western alliance - Finland and Sweden - Adm Dragone described the war as a strategic failure for Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite recent slow, incremental advances by Russia on the battlefield.
They will not get a friendly or puppet government like in Belarus. Putin will not succeed.
Asked if European nations were prepared to keep going with supporting Ukraine's defense, he said they did. It was beneficial, he believed that they had had something of a wake-up call and were now taking charge of their own defense.
In June, NATO members agreed to raise their defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035. The move followed repeated urges from US President Donald Trump for members to do so.
On Russia's recent announcement about long-range, nuclear-powered weapons, Dragone played down concerns by NATO, saying that it was a defensive nuclear alliance.
We are not threatened by them, he said, we are just ready to defend our 32 nations and our one billion people. We are a nuclear alliance.
On the risk of future invasions or attacks, Adm Dragone stated if - and he emphasized the conditional here - there was to be anywhere, it would likely be the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
But he pointed out that as NATO states Article 5 would be requested - which considers an attack on one nation to be equivalent to an attack on all - and that NATO would come to their defense.
Asked if that included the US, he replied: Yes, because they have committed to this and they have underlined that they are still in the business.
Of all NATO defense needs right now, Adm Dragone said air defense was the top priority. Recent incursions by Russian drones into Poland and Romania have prompted the alliance to upgrade its air defenses.
Regarding the possibility of activating a notional drone wall on NATO's eastern borders, he said this would be done within months, and that the alliance's Allied Command Transformation in Norfolk [Virginia] is already working on that.
Despite signs that Russia is consolidating its position in the war in Ukraine and some NATO members displaying reluctance to continue support for Ukraine, Adm Dragone ended on a positive note.
The alliance is reliable; it is mature, there is a cohesion which is our center of gravity.
The alliance is stronger than our adversaries, and we will stay with Ukraine up to the day that peace will break out, he added.
Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chair of NATO's military committee since January, added from an operational point of view he considered the Russia-Ukraine war was bogged down, and it was almost time to sit and talk because it's a waste of lives.
Pointing to the fact that Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 had resulted in two more countries joining the Western alliance - Finland and Sweden - Adm Dragone described the war as a strategic failure for Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite recent slow, incremental advances by Russia on the battlefield.
They will not get a friendly or puppet government like in Belarus. Putin will not succeed.
Asked if European nations were prepared to keep going with supporting Ukraine's defense, he said they did. It was beneficial, he believed that they had had something of a wake-up call and were now taking charge of their own defense.
In June, NATO members agreed to raise their defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035. The move followed repeated urges from US President Donald Trump for members to do so.
On Russia's recent announcement about long-range, nuclear-powered weapons, Dragone played down concerns by NATO, saying that it was a defensive nuclear alliance.
We are not threatened by them, he said, we are just ready to defend our 32 nations and our one billion people. We are a nuclear alliance.
On the risk of future invasions or attacks, Adm Dragone stated if - and he emphasized the conditional here - there was to be anywhere, it would likely be the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
But he pointed out that as NATO states Article 5 would be requested - which considers an attack on one nation to be equivalent to an attack on all - and that NATO would come to their defense.
Asked if that included the US, he replied: Yes, because they have committed to this and they have underlined that they are still in the business.
Of all NATO defense needs right now, Adm Dragone said air defense was the top priority. Recent incursions by Russian drones into Poland and Romania have prompted the alliance to upgrade its air defenses.
Regarding the possibility of activating a notional drone wall on NATO's eastern borders, he said this would be done within months, and that the alliance's Allied Command Transformation in Norfolk [Virginia] is already working on that.
Despite signs that Russia is consolidating its position in the war in Ukraine and some NATO members displaying reluctance to continue support for Ukraine, Adm Dragone ended on a positive note.
The alliance is reliable; it is mature, there is a cohesion which is our center of gravity.
The alliance is stronger than our adversaries, and we will stay with Ukraine up to the day that peace will break out, he added.
