Arms deliveries to Ukraine will be on the agenda of a meeting of NATO defense ministers to which partner countries will be invited, which will take place on Wednesday June 15 in Brussels, American officials said. while Kyiv is asking for a significant increase in these deliveries to help it repel Russian troops in eastern Ukraine.
The battle for Sievierodonetsk – a city of almost 100,000 people before the war – is the epicenter of the fighting for control of Donbass, the main objective that Moscow set itself after giving up the capture of Kyiv in the first weeks of its invasion operation, launched on 24 February.
Wednesday’s meeting will be chaired by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. This is the third time that such a meeting, which will be attended by nearly 50 countries, has been organized to discuss assistance to Ukraine.
“Russia has not given up the fight, despite its rather anemic progress. What we have is a slow and gradual Russian operation,” said a senior US defense official, who preferred to remain anonymous.
“So the question is what the Ukrainians need to continue to slow down and thwart the Russian target, as they have already done, and that will be one of the main concerns of defense ministers,” he said. he added.
US officials expect announcements regarding additional arms deliveries to Ukraine to be made in the coming days.
NATO must strengthen its military capabilities
NATO must move towards an “even higher level of readiness” and strengthen its weapons capabilities on its eastern flank in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the secretary also said on Tuesday. General of the Transatlantic Alliance.
Following informal talks in the Netherlands with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Danish, Polish, Latvian, Romanian, Portuguese and Belgian leaders, Jens Stoltenberg said NATO would “agree to a major reinforcementof his posture at the summit scheduled for Madrid at the end of the month.
“Tonight we discussed the need for a more robust, combat-ready presence and an even higher degree of readiness, and more pre-positioned equipment,” he told reporters. .
While Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky called earlier today for more long-range weapons, Jens Stoltenberg said he agreed that Kyiv should receive more heavy weapons, but did not provide any details.
“NATO allies and partners have provided heavy weapons (…) and they are stepping up their efforts,” said NATO’s secretary general. “In terms of armaments, we remain united on the fact that it is crucial that Russia loses the war,” said Mark Rutte.
“As we cannot have a direct confrontation between NATO troops and Russia, we must ensure that Ukraine can fight this war, that it has access to all the necessary armament,” he said. he added in front of the press in The Hague.
Modest but solid gains for Kyiv
“We need weapons with sufficient range to reduce the equipment advantage of the Russian Federation,” Volodimir Zelensky told Danish reporters in an online press conference on Tuesday.
According to Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak, Ukraine needs 1,000 howitzers, 500 tanks and 1,000 drones among other heavy weapons. The Ukrainian authorities hope that by concentrating its efforts on Donbass, the Russian army will empty other fronts and expose itself to counter-attacks, as last month when the Ukrainian forces were able to reconquer territories around Kharkiv, in the northeast of the country.
Kyiv recently reported modest but solid gains in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine.
