NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday pledged continued support to Ukraine, but also pointed out that the alliance will remain cautious to avoid a wider war with Russia, Ednews reports citing Yeni Safak. 

“NATO is not party to the conflict. We will not be dragged into Putin's war,” Stoltenberg said at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, after their meeting in Berlin.

The NATO secretary general accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of deliberately bombing Ukraine’s civilian and energy infrastructure to freeze and starve the Ukrainians into submission.

“Putin is using winter as a weapon. And we cannot allow him to win. At this critical moment, our continued support for Ukraine is more important than ever,” he added.

Stoltenberg thanked the German government for its financial and military support for Ukraine.

“Germany is among the allies providing most military, financial and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Military equipment provided by Germany protects Ukrainian homes, schools and hospitals from Russian missile attacks,” he said.

- New NATO initiative

Stoltenberg noted that, during their meeting with Scholz, they discussed Germany and Norway’s proposal to set up a center to protect critical undersea infrastructure, such as cables and pipelines on the seabed.

“The recent sabotage of the North Stream pipelines has reminded us all of the vulnerabilities of this infrastructure,” he said, adding that since then, NATO has doubled the number of ships patrolling the North and the Baltic seas.

“But we need to do more, to help protect this vital infrastructure. So, I welcome the German-Norwegian initiative to establish a NATO Undersea Infrastructure Centre,” Stoltenberg said.

“Such a center would provide allies with better situational awareness, map our vulnerabilities. And help deter and recover from any disruptive actions against Allied undersea infrastructure,” he added.