Anders Fogh Rasmussen believes NATO troops may take direct part in Ukraine conflict

NATO troops may take a direct part in the conflict in Ukraine, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former Secretary General of the alliance said in an interview with The Guardian.

NATO countries may want to send troops to Ukraine if NATO member states, including the United States, do not provide Kyiv with real security guarantees at the Vilnius summit, Rasmussen said.

The former secretary general also stressed that the Baltic countries and Poland could set up a coalition to send troops to Ukraine should Kyiv get nothing in Vilnius.

On June 2, British Defenсe Secretary Ben Wallace said that there were disagreements among NATO members regarding Ukraine's membership in the alliance. Commenting on the NATO summit scheduled for this summer in the capital of Lithuania, Wallace urged everyone to be realistic.

"We have to be realistic and say, "It's not going to happen at Vilnius; It's not going to happen anytime soon," Ben Wallace said.

As for the United States, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said that Washington was focusing on military assistance to Ukraine rather than on its admission to NATO.

Dmitry Peskov, an official spokesman for the Kremlin, said that the issue of Russia's security excluded Ukraine's membership in the NATO military bloc.

According to Peskov, NATO's approach to Russian borders, including through Ukraine's entry into the alliance, is one of the main problems "for many, many years" to come.

On June 6, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg noted that the countries of the North Atlantic Alliance would intensify assistance to Ukraine at the summit in Vilnius. According to him, the decisions that will be taken at the summit will be significant.