The West will deploy all resources available to ensure that the conflict in Ukraine does not spread to other countries in Europe, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a televised address to the nation on Thursday.
"Putin should not underestimate the determination of NATO to defend all its members. This applies expressly to our NATO partners in the Baltic States, Poland and Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia. No ifs or buts," the chancellor said.
Scholz also said Russian President Vladimir Putin alone and not the Russian people bore the responsibility for the attack on Ukraine, but he "would not win."
"With the attack on Ukraine, President Putin wants to turn back time. But there is no going back to the 19th century, when great powers ruled over the heads of smaller states," Scholz said.
(Reporting by Kirsti Knolle and Sarah Marsh; Editing by Zuzanna Szymanska)
