NATO does not plan to deploy its forces in Ukraine and will continue contacts with the Russian Federation

“There are no NATO forces on the territory of Ukraine and there are no plans to send them there either. We support Ukraine, but we provide firm security guarantees only to NATO allies”, - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said after a meeting of permanent representatives in Brussels.

It is reported by "Interfax".

At the same time, the NATO Secretary General considered it necessary to recall that, according to the North Atlantic Treaty, an attack on one of the NATO countries is regarded as an attack against all members of the organization. This is the "guarantee of collective security" of the North Atlantic bloc, Stoltenberg said.

Stoltenberg confirmed the fact of contacts between the military commanders of NATO and Russia. "The defusing of conflict situations is very important to us. We will continue to contact them to make sure that we are doing everything possible to ensure the elimination of conflict situations", - he said at a press conference. At the same time, Stoltenberg called on Russia to stop the military operation in Ukraine and follow the path of negotiations.

Simultaneously, NATO was notified that on 24 February the North Atlantic Council had decided to activate its defense plan at the request of Supreme Commander General Tod Walters. According to NATO representatives, this is a preventive defensive measure to protect allies during a crisis.

Earlier, the Permanent Representatives of NATO countries, in connection with the situation around Ukraine, decided to strengthen deterrence and defense measures, while avoiding an escalation of the situation. "We have decided, in line with our defensive plan to protect all allies, to take additional steps to further strengthen deterrence and defense throughout the alliance", - the document reads. "Our measures are still preventive, proportionate and do not increase tension", - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg explained.