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On the penultimate day as NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg gave a short interview to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency. Already on Tuesday, October 1, the official ceremony of handing over the powers to Mark Rutte, who was previously the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, will be held as the Secretary General of the Alliance.

https://youtu.be/sctBs5pJRM8

Text: Iryna Somer, Brussels.

- Coming back to your recent speech at the German Marshall Fund, you mentioned that the only guarantee for security and lasting peace in Europe is membership in NATO for Ukraine. So can you elaborate a little bit? Do you see a possibility that it will happen in conditions where part of Ukrainian territory is still occupied by Russians, but the biggest part of Ukraine is under the control of the Ukrainian government? What is your opinion on this?

- It's for NATO allies to decide exactly how membership should be applied or work for Ukraine, but we all are aware of that. Of course, if we say that the only way for Ukraine to become a member is that the war to ends and Ukraine is in full control over the whole Ukrainian territory, then we give President Putin all the incentives to just find a way to continue the war. But my main message is that NATO security guarantees is the way to ensure a lasting and just peace for Ukraine.

It's for Ukrainians to decide what are the conditions for negotiations and what are conditions for an acceptable solution. But if there is an agreement on a line, then, of course, we need to make sure that the war really stops there. Because Ukrainians know better than anyone else, the war didn't start in 2022, it started in 2014. Then Russia took Crimea and then they went into Eastern Donbass a bit later. We