BRUSSELS, July 17. /TASS/. Former NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defense Policy and Planning Patrick Turner of the United Kingdom, under whom NATO forces left Afghanistan in 2021, has been designated the alliance’s senior representative in Ukraine, NATO’s press service said.

"Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced the appointment of a Senior Representative to lead the NATO Representation in Ukraine (NRU). Patrick Turner will take up the role in Kiev in September 2024. He previously served as NATO Assistant Secretary General for Operations and as Assistant Secretary General for Defense Policy and Planning, as well as in a range of senior civil service positions for the United Kingdom," it said in a statement. "As the Senior Representative, Mr. Turner will head the NRU and act as a focal point for NATO’s engagement with the Ukrainian authorities in Kiev," the press service added.

Earlier, Stoltenberg said that the task of NATO’s senior representative in Ukraine will be coordinating and overseeing the receipt of Western arms by Ukraine after the alliance’s summit in Washington decided to make these deliveries obligatory for NATO countries, while the functions of collecting weapons have been handed over by the US to the military bloc. Toward this end, NATO established a separate command structure in Wiesbaden, Germany, with approximately 700 personnel, exclusively handling supplies for Ukraine. In 2025, NATO countries vowed to provide 40 bln euros for weapons deliveries to the Kiev regime.

Turner was the assistant secretary general for operations, defense policy and planning in 2018-2022. His direct responsibility was coordinating NATO missions in Afghanistan, Kosovo and Iraq where NATO had a small-scale mission on training local troops.

The withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan was launched in 2020 and completed in August 2021. A number of the alliance’s commanders were decorated for the evacuation of Western forces and Afghan citizens in the combat situation, however, there is no information in open sources whether Turner received any awards.