The Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, considers it impossible to return to the former relations with Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

"At the end of the Cold War, many of us in this room believed we could build a better relationship with Russia. Me included. And I still believe it was the right thing to do. To seize the historic moment to build better security in Europe together with Russia," Stoltenberg said on Tuesday at the summit of Northern European countries SAMAK in Helsinki.

Instead, he noted, Russian President Vladimir Putin "chose to walk away from cooperation and dialogue, he has left a trail of broken promises, shattered fundamental principles of global security, attacking neighbouring countries, and tried to undermine our own democracies."

As an example, the Secretary General of the Alliance cited Moscow's decision to suspend the New START Treaty limiting nuclear weapons as the latest example of Moscow's lack of respect for international norms.

"We have to recognise that the end of this war will not be a return to normal in our relations with Russia. There is no going back," Stoltenberg underlined.

Earlier, the NATO Secretary General warned that the Alliance should be ready for a new era of confrontation with Russia, which could last a long time.

At the time, he said that NATO "will always look into where there are opportunities to again come into the situation where there is room for a better relationship, but with the current behaviour of the Russian regime, the regime in Moscow, there's no way."