NEW YORK, September 16 (RIA Novosti) - NATO needs a better strategy for handling Ukraine and other European non-members of the alliance, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe Philip Breedlove told the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank, on Monday.
"Clearly there are other nations in Europe that are not NATO allies, and I think the Western world needs to come to grips with what it is that is going to happen in these states that are outside the alliance, and between the alliance and Russia, and what are the expectations for how nations will conduct themselves in these states in the future," Breedlove said.
"This is work that I would ask the Atlantic Council and others to ponder: what is the approach to these nations that are not in the alliance and may come under great pressure in the future by those who would try to exploit some of this."
Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly called for NATO to provide Ukraine with military and technical assistance. An armed conflict began in eastern parts of the country in mid-April, as Kiev launched a military operation against independence supporters in the Donbas region.
NATO has stated that the organization itself cannot supply weapons and other military equipment to Ukraine, as it is not a member state. However, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that NATO would not interfere in the decisions of individual member states regarding this kind of decision.
