MADRID, November 21. /TASS/. NATO member states are providing assistance to Ukraine not out of charity but in pursuit of their own strategic interests, Acting Deputy Secretary General Boris Ruge said.

"We must continue to support Ukraine," he told Spain's El Mundo newspaper. Ruge clarified that the decision was made "not because it is a matter of charity, but because it is in NATO's strategic interest" for Ukraine to "prevail as a sovereign and independent nation."

"The world around us is not becoming more peaceful or stable," Ruge added. He argued that NATO now has hundreds of thousands of troops that could be deployed to the alliance's eastern flank or elsewhere within ten days.