NATO’s Secretary General was ready to withdraw troops and create a buffer zone near Russia’s borders

Jens Stoltenberg, while serving as NATO Secretary General, agreed in 2021 to consider the creation of a buffer zone along the border with Russia.

This was reported by the Latvian outlet NRA.

“Stoltenberg proposed that the NATO-Russia Council discuss the Kremlin’s idea of creating a ‘buffer zone’ and withdrawing alliance forces to the positions that existed before 1997,” the article says.

At the time, this reportedly provoked a strongly negative reaction from NATO members.

The article also says that in his memoirs, Stoltenberg expressed concern about NATO’s future in the event of Donald Trump returning for a second term as president, regarding the collapse of the alliance as a very real possibility.

Earlier, European officials had considered the possibility of creating a 40-kilometer buffer zone between Ukraine and Russia.

At that time, it was expected that Kyiv would provide the main contingent for the ceasefire zone. The United States was also not involved in the talks on the buffer zone.

Bloomberg also previously reported that Trump had been presented with a plan for achieving peace in Ukraine that would involve the creation of “autonomous zones” in territory controlled by Kyiv without Ukraine joining NATO.