Brussels, BelgiumNATO defense ministers on Friday approved a plan to provide reliable long-term security aid and military training to Ukraine after delays in Western deliveries of funds, weapons and ammunition helped invading Russian forces take over. initiative on the battlefield.
kyiv’s Western supporters have focused their efforts primarily through the Pentagon-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a forum in which about 50 countries pool the weapons and ammunition the war-torn country needs most.
The new plan will be a complementary effort. Announcing the move after chairing a meeting of defense ministers in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the plan will be based at a US military base in Wiesbaden, Germany, and will involve almost 700 people.
He reiterated that he will help organize the training of Ukrainian military personnel in the alliance member countries, coordinate and plan donations of equipment that kyiv needs, and manage the transfer and repair of that military equipment.
The effort has been described as a “Trump-proof” way to get NATO support for Ukraine, a reference to concerns that former President Donald Trump could withdraw U.S. support for kyiv if he returns to office.
“It is so that it is resistant to any situation,” Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting.
“We have to consider the fact that this (war) could last for years. “We want to have something that does not depend on specific people, ministers or whoever, but rather a structure that works,” he said.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who leads a stridently nationalist government, has systematically hindered efforts by NATO and the European Union to help Ukraine. He threatened to veto the plan, but agreed to let other allies go ahead if Budapest was not forced to participate.
kyiv’s outgunned forces are struggling to contain a Russian army that also outnumbers them. Troop numbers, ammunition and air defenses have been reduced as Kremlin forces try to paralyze electricity supplies across Ukraine and break through the front line in the eastern parts of the country.
Moscow has taken advantage of the United States’ long delay in providing military aid. EU funds were also held back by political infighting.
Ukraine will need to withstand the attack through the summer, military analysts warn, while also training more soldiers, building fortifications and waiting for deliveries of Western military aid to accelerate so kyiv can mount a new offensive next year.
Stoltenberg has expressed hope that US President Joe Biden and his counterparts will agree at their July 9-11 summit in Washington to maintain the level of funding for military support they have provided to Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion. total in February 2022.
He estimates this amounts to about 40 billion euros ($43 billion) worth of equipment annually.
“We haven’t reached an agreement on this yet,” he told reporters after Friday’s meeting.
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