NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he was “confident” on Friday during a meeting in Germany that Ukraine could regain ground from the Russians in a counter-offensive for which Kiev is demanding more weapons and ammunition.
Gathered at the US base in Ramstein, Kiev’s allies “reviewed the various capabilities, systems and supplies the Ukrainians need to reclaim more ground,” Stoltenberg said.
“I am confident that they (the Ukrainians) will now be able to free up even more ground,” he said.
A year after its establishment, the group of around fifty countries supporting Ukraine militarily “has become an extraordinary community of action” which has enabled “impressive progress” on the ground, added the American Secretary of State. Defense, Lloyd Austin.
On a visit to Kiev on Thursday, the head of NATO spoke there with President Volodymyr Zelensky, who constantly calls on Westerners to deliver more armor, artillery, ammunition but also planes weapons and long-range firing systems to hit Russian logistics far behind the front line.
“Together, we will ensure that Ukraine has everything it needs,” the US Secretary of Defense told Ramstein.
Mr. Austin notably announced the delivery in the next few weeks of American Abrams heavy tanks to Germany, initially to train Ukrainian soldiers there, before their deployment on the battlefield.
Between insufficient stocks, fear of escalation and logistical problems, Europeans and Americans have however shown themselves to be more cautious than kyiv would have liked.
The delivery of fighter planes to Ukraine in particular divides kyiv’s support, with Germany seeming particularly reluctant.
Slovakia and Poland began supplying Ukraine with Soviet-designed Mig-29 fighters. But sending modern Western-made planes is yet to be discussed.
“We are all convinced that what Ukraine urgently needs is a ground-based air defense capability,” Austin said.
“The Russians have significant air power and to upgrade the Ukrainian air force from its current level to that of the Russian air force would require considerable effort,” argued the US Chief of Staff General Mark Milley.
“We reiterated our requests for combat aircraft,” said Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov.
The Alliance is focused on the supply of ammunition and spare parts, so that the systems already deployed “produce the desired effect”, underlined Mr. Stoltenberg.
“It is now a battle of attrition and a battle of attrition becomes a war of logistics,” he explained.
The European Union, which promised in March an allocation of one billion euros for ammunition taken from existing stocks, and a second billion for joint purchasing contracts with European companies, had to reassure Ukraine Friday, its head of diplomacy Josep Borrell affirming in Brussels that the EU “respects its commitments”.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba wrote in a tweet that “the EU’s inability to implement its own decision” was measured on the front “in human lives”.
Ukrainian, Polish and German representatives have also agreed in Ramstein to set up a “joint repair center in Poland” for Leopard 2 tanks, announced German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.
Westerners have provided more than $150 billion in aid to Ukraine since the Russian invasion began in February 2022, including $65 billion in the military, he said.
After resisting Russian assaults on the eastern front all winter, Ukrainian forces say they are preparing their own offensive for spring or summer.
After the heavy tanks, Ukraine announced this week that it had received the first American Patriot air defense systems, an operation coordinated by the United States, Germany and the Netherlands.
In Kiev, Mr. Stoltenberg had declared that Kiev’s “future” lay in the “Euro-Atlantic family”, without saying anything about the timetable for a possible NATO membership.
The prospect ulcerates the Kremlin, which castigated Friday, through the voice of its spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the “aggressive nature” of the Atlantic Alliance.
21/04/2023 18:14:02 – Ramstein (Allemagne) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP