NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg made a surprise visit to the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Thursday. This was confirmed by a spokesman for the defense alliance in the morning of the German Press Agency.

During his first visit since the Russian invasion almost 14 months ago, the Secretary General honored the fallen Ukrainian soldiers on the outer wall of the central St. Michael's Monastery. Other program items were initially unknown. Alliance circles said that planned meetings would initially be kept secret for security reasons.

Stoltenberg has been a tireless supporter of Ukraine since the beginning of Russia's war of aggression and has continually campaigned for new arms deliveries to the Ukrainian armed forces.

Invitation to the NATO summit in Lithuania

At a summit meeting of the eastern alliance states in Warsaw, Stoltenberg recently advocated showing Russia its borders once and for all. "We must not allow Russia to continue undermining European security," said the Norwegian at the time. One must "break the cycle of Russian aggression" and ensure "that history does not repeat itself".

Most recently, Stoltenberg invited the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj to the upcoming NATO summit in Lithuania. "We look forward to meeting President Zelenskyy at our summit in Vilnius in July," he said in early April. The NATO summit will be organized in Lithuania's capital on July 11-12. It was initially unclear whether the president of the country attacked by Russia would actually come.