Stoltenberg: apart from helping Ukraine, NATO has responsibility to prevent escalation of the war

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was the guest of Thursday's "Tak jest" programme in TVN24. The host, our own Brussels correspondent Maciej Sokołowski, asked the chief of the Alliance if Ukraine could win the war against Russia on its own, without any help from NATO soldiers. "NATO is providing significant support to Ukraine, and NATO allies are providing a lot of support and military equipment, financial and humanitarian support, and also providing advanced military weapon systems," he said.

"But NATO has responsibility not only to support Ukraine, but also to prevent this conflict from escalating beyond Ukraine and becoming a full-fledged war. We have seen enourmous strength and courage of Ukrainian forces, able to inflict serious casualties on the invading Russian forces, so actually they have proven extremely capable and with hte support from us they can achieve a lot," he added.

Later in the interview, Stoltenberg was asked if Poland was attacked, would it also hear that NATO's priority is to prevent escalation.

He replied that there is a "big difference between a highly valued partner - Ukraine - which we support, and a NATO ally - Poland - which we provide 100-percent security guarantees". "An attack on one ally will trigger a response from the whole alliance. One for all, all for one - that's Article 5 of the founding treaty, our core responsibility," Stoltenberg assured.