NATO mobilizes to maintain the delivery of arms and ammunition to Ukraine

Ukraine’s Western allies pledged Tuesday in Brussels to maintain the huge amounts of ammunition and weapons Ukraine needs, while the fight for the city of Bakhmut raged.

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, it has toned down its demands for fighter jets, after getting promises of tanks, air defense and missiles from allies. Gathered at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Ukraine’s allies focused on securing the flow of ammunition and armored vehicles that they need to face the Russian offensive on the ground.

Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said the priorities for his country were improve anti-air defense, reinforce tank supplies and guarantee ammunition stocks. Leaving the meeting, US General Mark Milley said that Russia has already lost that war. “Russia has lost, it has lost strategically, operationally and tactically, and it is paying a huge price,” he said.

But as long as hostilities continue, “the international community will continue to support Ukraine with the equipment and capabilities it needs,” he added. Ukraine’s Western allies, led by the United States, have already they have supplied tens of billions of dollars in weapons to help defend that country.

Now, days before a year has elapsed since the start of the war, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) maintains that Russian President Vladimir Putin seems launching a new, broader offensive in eastern Ukraine.

“Russia is introducing new troops on the battlefield. A lot of those troops are poorly trained and poorly equipped, so their casualty rate has been really high,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

The American leader said that Ukraine sought to turn the tide of the conflict to gain momentum, and expected Ukrainian forces to launch their own counteroffensive in the spring.

A “meat grinder”

On the ground in eastern Ukraine, an AFP team heard heavy artillery fire toward Russian lines around the city of Bakhmut, the target of a huge Russian offensive. The city is not considered strategic but it became a symbol of the Ukrainian resistance in this conflict.

The head of the Russian Wagner paramilitary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, admitted that Bakhmut “will not be taken tomorrow, because there is strong resistance and shelling. It’s a working meat grinder.” On Monday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg admitted that Ukraine is using a much higher amount of ammunition to NATO’s ability to produce themand warned that it is necessary to strengthen contracts with arms industries.

According to the German press, those contracts would allow for the delivery of 300,000 munitions to Ukraine starting in July. For the European NATO allies, the flow of ammunition for the weapons supplied to the Ukrainians became a problematic priority.

For Stoltenberg, this is a war of attrition and a logistical battle.”

In particular, Ukrainians urgently need 155-millimeter ammunitionof which they use several thousand daily.

The German Defense Minister, Boris Pistorius, announced that the German industry was preparing to strengthen a specific ammunition production line for Guepard anti-aircraft defense systems. “The contracts have already been signed with the manufacturers,” he said. According to the German press, these contracts would allow the delivery of 300,000 munitions to Ukraine starting in July.

The urgency of finding mechanisms to increase ammunition production capacity momentarily left the sensitive question of the fighter planes ordered by Ukraine out of the discussion. A senior US official said sending planes “is not something we’re talking about at that table right now.”

For its part, Slovakia has said it is willing to discuss sending ex-Soviet MIG-29 jets to help replace losses from Ukraine’s current stocks. For the Dutch Defense Minister, Kajsa Ollongren, the discussion “will take time.” Ukraine has asked the Netherlands to hand over US F-16 jets.

On Monday, Stoltenberg insisted that “the issue of planes is not the most pressing issue right now, but it is an ongoing discussion.” For the NATO chief, “the urgent need now is to fulfill what has already been promised.” (YO)