Coup attempt shows Putin made a big mistake invading Ukraine – NATO

According to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday, June 26, the failed mutiny by Russia’s Wagner mercenary squad over the weekend illustrated the magnitude of the Kremlin’s geopolitical error in supporting Ukraine’s independence.

In the largest challenge to Putin’s administration in two decades, Wagner fighters halted a swift march on Moscow on Sunday, retreating from the occupied southern Russian city of Rostov and returning to their camps late on Saturday under an agreement that secured their safety.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the commander of the Wagner, consented to relocate to Belarus as part of the agreement brokered by Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, the Kremlin reported. NATO, however, argues that Putin made a strategic error by invading Ukraine last year as seen by the disarray in Russia.

During a press conference in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, Stoltenberg said, “The events over the weekend are an internal Russian matter and yet another demonstration of the big strategic mistake that President (Vladimir) Putin made with his illegal annexation of Crimea and the war against Ukraine.”

Western governments are scrambling for explanations after the bizarre events of the past weekend over what may happen next in the nation with the greatest nuclear arsenal in the world and regarding its conflict with Ukraine.

NATO was keeping an eye on the situation in Belarus, according to Stoltenberg, who once more denounced Moscow’s plan to station nuclear weapons there.

He stated, “We don’t see any indication that Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons but NATO remains vigilant,” adding that NATO’s deterrence was powerful enough to keep its citizens safe in a “more dangerous world.”