Nato 'will stand with Ukraine' to get long-lasting peace, senior official tells BBC

Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone tells the BBC the Russia-Ukraine war is bogged down, and it is "almost time to sit and talk".

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Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chair of Nato's military committee since January, added from an operational point of view he considered the Russia-Ukraine war was bogged down, and "it was almost time to sit and talk because it's a waste of lives".

Pointing to the fact that Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 had resulted in two more countries joining the Western alliance - Finland and Sweden - Adm Dragone described the war as a strategic failure for Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite recent slow, incremental advances by Russia on the battlefield.

"They will not get a friendly or puppet government like in Belarus. Putin will not succeed."

Asked if European nations were prepared to keep going with supporting Ukraine's defence, he said they were. It was beneficial, he believed that they had had something of a wake-up call and were now taking charge of their own defence.