Opening the meeting, the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance ,

Jens Stoltenberg

, assured that NATO will be ready to defend every inch of its territory against invasion.

He emphasized that the alliance is not involved in this conflict, but its members provide unprecedented support to Ukraine so that it can defend itself from Russia, writes the BBC.

"We cannot allow Putin to win, otherwise it will give a green light to other authoritarian leaders, show them that they can achieve their goals with military force.

It will make our world even more dangerous for all of us.

Therefore, it is in our common security interests to support Ukraine," Stoltenberg said.

He accused Russia of increasing brutality in this war and mentioned the financial burden it has placed on Europe and other countries of the world.

"In fact, we are all paying the price for Russia's war in Ukraine, but we are paying this price in money, while Ukraine is paying it in blood," the Secretary General said.

Help with weapons

In order to win the war, NATO countries urgently need to increase the production of weapons, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine

Dmytro Kuleba

.

In an interview with Politico, he said that it is impossible to win on the battlefield in the long term without investing in the production of weapons: "While we are fighting today's battles, we must think about how we will fight tomorrow's battles."

According to Kuleba, there is no need to spend months on negotiations with countries that do not want to share weapons with Ukraine that would help it in the war for political reasons.

He also specified that Ukraine needs air defense systems, tanks and production lines most of all.

During the summit, its participants are expected to discuss increasing military aid, including air defense systems, ammunition, fuel, medicine and winter gear.

Ukraine is also asking to provide it with offensive weapons.

The summit in Bucharest is notable for the fact that it was in the Romanian capital 14 years ago, in 2008, that a decision was made on the possible accession of Ukraine and Georgia to the alliance.

Vladimir Putin

called this decision a direct threat to Russia's security, and four months later Russia invaded the territory of Georgia.

In 2014, hostilities launched with the direct assistance of Russia began in Ukraine, which in 2022 resulted in a full-scale war, the occupation of parts of Ukrainian territories in the east, north and south, as well as torture and murder of the civilian population of Ukraine.