The NATO Secretary General wants to strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses in particular.
(Photo: AP)
Brussels In response to the systematic missile attacks on Ukrainian cities by Russia, NATO wants to expand its arms deliveries. In particular, the Ukrainian air defense is to be strengthened in a targeted manner. The alliance partners have already provided air defense systems, “but we need more,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the meeting of the alliance’s defense ministers in Brussels.
“We need different types of air defense, short-range and long-range air defense systems to eliminate ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones, different systems for different tasks,” Stoltenberg said. Ukraine is a large country with a number of urban centers. NATO must increase its military aid “to help Ukraine defend more cities and more territories against the horrific Russian attacks on civilians.”
Ukraine has now received the first modern western air defense system – from Germany. This is the Iris-T system from the arms manufacturer Diehl Defence. Three more Iris-T systems will be delivered in the coming year, they have to be manufactured first.
In addition to Germany, the United States has also promised the Ukrainian government modern air defense equipment. Deliveries of the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) are now to be accelerated. The Russian bombing of civilian targets underscores the “viciousness and brutality” of the war, said US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who was meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit with the 50 or so countries coordinating their arms sales to Ukraine.
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“Air defense is currently the number one priority in our defense cooperation,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Twitter. Since Monday, the Russian military has fired about 100 rockets into Ukraine, killing at least 26 people.
The sirens wailed for the third day in a row on Wednesday. To date, Ukraine has deployed Soviet S-300 and SA-11 Buk systems, which Zelenskiy said were “not nearly enough to protect civilian infrastructure, schools, hospitals, universities and Ukrainian homes.” .
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The shelling of Ukrainian cities has little military benefit for Russia. The attacks do not change anything about Ukraine’s recently successful counteroffensive. According to Brussels diplomats and military advisors, these are pure retaliatory strikes, with which the Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin wants to take revenge for the attack on the Kerch Bridge between the Russian-occupied Crimea peninsula and the Russian mainland.
The Russian rocket salvos have also raised calls for a no-fly zone in Ukraine. But NATO is still not ready for that. “It is important that NATO does not become a party in this conflict,” stressed US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith, a close confidant of US President Joe Biden.
It is a “conflict between Ukraine and Russia” in which Allianz supports the Ukrainian side. “But the allies also agree that NATO should not be dragged into the war.”
More: What countermeasures the West is planning after the brutal rocket attacks on Ukraine