"NATO will stand by Ukraine until the day we see them sitting at the table for lasting peace," a senior military alliance official told the BBC.
Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee since January, added that from an operational point of view he believes the war between Russia and Ukraine is bogged down and "it's almost time to sit down and talk because this is a loss of life".
Pointing out the fact that Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 led to the accession of two more countries to the Western alliance - Finland and Sweden - Adm. Dragone described the war as a strategic failure for Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite Russia's recent slow, gradual successes on the battlefield.
"They will not get a friendly or puppet government like the one in Belarus. Putin will not succeed."
Asked whether European countries are ready to continue supporting Ukraine's defense, he replied in the affirmative. He believed it was beneficial that they had received something like an alarm signal and were now taking responsibility for their own defense.
In June, NATO member countries agreed to increase their defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035. This move followed repeated calls from US President Donald Trump for members to do so.
Regarding Russia's recent announcement of long-range and nuclear-powered weapons such as "Burevestnik" and "Poseidon", the former chief of defense of Italy and a military pilot downplayed NATO's concerns, saying that this is a defensive nuclear alliance.
"We are not threatened by them," he said, "we are just ready to defend our 32 nations and our one billion people. We are a nuclear alliance."
Regarding the risk of future invasions or attacks, Adm. Dragone said that if - and he emphasized the conditional - there was a possibility of something happening, it would likely be in the Baltic countries: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
But he pointed out that as NATO countries Article 5 will be invoked - which considers an attack on one nation as an attack on all - and that NATO will come to their defense.
Asked if that included the US, he replied: "Yes, because they are committed to this and have emphasized that they are still in the game."