Jens Stoltenberg said the Russian president was engaged in "a war of attrition", adding that he wanted Nato members to agree to spend 2% of GDP on defence as a minimum at the alliance's next summit, in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius.
The fierce fighting, currently centred on Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine, demonstrated that Russia was willing "to just throw in thousands and thousands more troops, to take many casualties for minimal gains", the Nato head said. "President Putin doesn't plan for peace, he's planning for more war," Stoltenberg continued, adding that Russia was increasing military industrial production and "reaching out to authoritarian regimes like Iran or North Korea, and others, to try to get more weapons".
This story is from the March 23, 2023 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the March 23, 2023 edition of The Guardian.
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