NATO is ready to defend itself against Russia and Belarus – Stoltenberg

The North Atlantic Alliance is prepared to defend itself against any threat from “Moscow or Minsk”, General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg said. Russia and Belarus received a clear signal that the military-political union is responsible for the security of “every ally, every inch of NATO territory.”

The NATO Secretary General said it is too early to discuss the consequences of the deployment of the Wagner group fighters in Belarus, adding that Prigozhin’s “mutiny” is “an internal Russian matter.” At the same time, Polish President Andrzej Duda called on the alliance to give a “tough response” to transferring forces of a Russian private military company to Belarus.

“There is an actual redeployment of Russian troops, the Wagner PMC, to Belarus with its head Yevgeny Prigozhin. These are very negative signals for us, which we want to convey to our allies,” Duda explained.

Gitanas Nausėda, President of Lithuania, shares Duda’s fears. “If Wagner deploys its serial killers in Belarus, all neighboring countries face an even greater danger of instability,” Nausėda said.