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"It
is the Ukrainians, and only the Ukrainians, who can decide when
there are conditions in place for negotiations, and who can
decide at the negotiating table what is an acceptable solution,"
Stoltenberg said.
Speaking at a conference in the Norwegian town of Arendal, he
added that NATO's role was to support Ukraine.
The statement followed remarks by Stoltenberg's chief of staff
at NATO, Stian Jenssen, who on Tuesday said Ukraine may in the
end give up territory to Russia as part of a deal to end the
war. Jenssen subsequently said he regretted his comments.
"His (Jenssen's) message, and which is my main message, and
which is NATO's main message, is, firstly, that NATO's policy is
unchanged - we support Ukraine," Stoltenberg said.
NATO at its summit last month said it will extend an invitation
to Ukraine to join the military alliance when "members agree and
conditions are met", and that the country has the right to
choose its own path independently of Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that while the
outcome of the July NATO summit was good, it would have been
ideal if Kyiv had received an outright invitation to join the
Western military alliance.
Thousands of Ukrainian troops have been trained by Kyiv's
Western partners and Ukraine is also heavily dependent on
weapons supplies as it fights Russian forces who began a
full-scale invasion in February 2022.
(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche in Arendal and Victoria Klesty in
Oslo; editing by Terje Solsvik and Keith Weir)
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