"The time has come for allies to consider whether they should lift some of the restrictions they have put on the use of weapons they have donated to Ukraine... Especially now when a lot of the fighting is going on in the Kharkov region, close to the border, to deny Ukraine the possibility of using these weapons against legitimate military targets on Russian territory makes it very hard for them to defend themselves," Stoltenberg told the Economist.
The alliance is not planning to send troops to Ukraine, he said.
"We don't have any intention to send NATO ground troops into Ukraine because our purpose… has been two-fold, to support Ukraine as we do, but also to ensure that we do not escalate this into a full scale conflict," Stoltenberg said.
The NATO chief said a Russia-NATO war should be prevented.
The task, he said, is “to prevent this war becoming a full-fledged war between Russia and NATO in Europe."
"We provide training, we provide weapons, ammunition to Ukraine, but we will not be directly involved from NATO territory in combat operations over or in Ukraine. So that’s a different thing," Stoltenberg said.
He rejected the idea of allowing to shoot down Russian missiles over Ukraine using NATO air defense systems in Eastern Europe.
"We will not be party to the conflict," Stoltenberg said.
Russia has been conducting a special military operation in Ukraine since February 24, 2022. President Vladimir Putin has said the operation aims to "protect people subjected to genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." According to the president, the ultimate goal of the operation is to liberate Donbas and create conditions that guarantee Russia's security.
Russia earlier sent a note to NATO because of arms supplies to Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said any cargo that contains weapons for Ukraine will become a legitimate target for Russia.