Former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the West's main mistake was not arming and training Ukraine enough between 2014 and 2022. In his opinion, this could have helped to hold onto more of the territory and possibly avoid a full-scale Russian invasion.
He stated this in an interview with DW.
Stoltenberg admitted that the Allies made a mistake by not providing sufficient support to Ukraine after the annexation of Crimea and the start of the war in Donbas.
“I tried to be honest in the book because I believe in transparency. NATO allies have provided Ukraine with unprecedented support, but the big mistake was that they did not provide more support earlier. We should have started in 2014. If we had done that, I think the Ukrainians could have controlled more territory, and maybe even prevented a Russian invasion,” Stoltenberg said.
He added that the support was to include not only armaments, but also training of the Ukrainian military throughout the years between 2010 and 2014 and until the start of full-scale aggression in 2022.