NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg leaves at the end of a press conference after an extraordinary meeting of the North Atlantic Council (NAC) following Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, in Brussels, Belgium, 24 February 2022. NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg said that he ‘strongly condemned Russia’s reckless and unprovoked attack on Ukraine,’ which puts at risk countless civilian lives. Russian troops launched a major military operation on Ukraine on 24 February, after weeks of intense diplomacy and the imposition of Western sanctions on Russia aimed at preventing an armed conflict in Ukraine. EPA/STEPHANIE LECOCQ