BRUSSELS — NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Tuesday he wants members of the Western military alliance to focus more on arming Ukraine than debating possible scenarios for ending the ongoing Russian invasion.

Mark Rutte said it was up to Ukraine to decide when it was ready to begin negotiations with Russia — and that the West should help strengthen Kyiv’s position beforehand.

NATO’s Secretary General Mark Rutte argued that Ukraine needs to be put in a “position of strength” instead of being pushed toward peace talks, while speaking at a Tuesday conference ahead of the

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte says he told Trump that Russia, China, Iran and North Korea all also have a stake in the Ukraine war’s outcome.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine is the focus of NATO's Allied Foreign Affairs Ministers meeting being held Tuesday and Wednesday in Brussels, Belgium, and might lead to Ukraine joining NATO.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has sidestepped questions about Ukraine’s possible membership in the military alliance.

Nato leaders should focus all their efforts on sending more weapons to Ukraine so it can enter possible peace talks from a position of strength, and not spend the time “pondering” other initiatives, secretary-general Mark Rutte has said.

NATO's two-day ministerial meeting will focus on providing Ukraine with enough military aid to enable it to enter any possible negotiations from a position of strength, Secretary General Mark Rutte said ahead of the meeting in Brussels on Dec.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meeting Tuesday with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Brussels ahead of a foreign ministers meeting, discussed what the U.S. State Department said were “concrete steps” the West could take to help Ukraine defend itself.

Allied countries must increase their support for Ukraine. This should be assistance in restoring three areas, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stated this before the start of the Ukraine-NATO Council meeting.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stressed that the partners hear Ukraine's calls for membership and are not backing down from their plans, but they have a different goal at the December meeting of the Alliance.