Jens Stoltenberg has claimed Western Europe must continue sending billions more to Kiev no matter the cost

Western Europe must keep sending billions in aid to Ukraine even if it comes at the expense of health services and education provision to citizens, former NATO Secretary General and current Norwegian Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg, has said.

Stoltenberg, who led the military bloc from 2014 to 2024 and oversaw the deterioration of the Ukraine crisis into a full-scale conflict in 2022, addressed the Warsaw Security Forum on Tuesday. His remarks echoed previous calls by his successor, Mark Rutte, to cut social spending in order to further aid Kiev.

"I know that one additional billion to Ukraine or one billion extra to national defense is one billion less to other good purposes like health, education and infrastructure. But we must remember that the highest cost is to let Putin win," he said.

Stoltenberg was a strong backer of Ukraine's failed bloc-membership bid and of developing NATO-compatible infrastructure in Ukraine - measures that Russia has repeatedly cited as root causes of the conflict.

He intensified calls for Ukraine to be admitted to the bloc following the escalation of the conflict in February 2022, and urged members to increase military and financial backing for Kiev.

At the forum, he boasted that, since he took over the Finance Ministry, Norway - one of the world's richest countries - has tripled its military support to Ukraine and significantly raised defense spending.

His remarks come as Western European governments are ramping up military expenditures, citing an alleged threat from Russia.

Moscow has firmly rejected accusations that it plans to attack NATO or any EU states, calling such claims a pretext to justify inflated military budgets at the expense of social programs.

Russian officials have accused Western leaders of stoking Russophobic hysteria and preparing for war. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said Moscow is concerned that certain officials in NATO and the EU "are beginning to seriously talk about a third world war as a potential scenario."

(RT.com)