Hike arms production, NATO chief tells EU
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said increased deliveries to Ukraine is needed.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s secretary general called on Europe to increase its arms production to support Ukraine’s war with Russia as another drone attack by Moscow killed seven people in Kharkiv city on Saturday.
“If Putin wins in Ukraine, there is no guarantee that Russian aggression will not spread further. So supporting Ukraine now and investing in NATO’s own capabilities is our best defense,” Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview published by German media Saturday.
“We need to reconstitute and expand our industrial base faster, to increase deliveries to Ukraine and refill our own stocks,” he added ahead of NATO defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels on 15 February, one week ahead of the second anniversary of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.
A meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group will be a key feature of the talks.
The call came amid growing pleas of Kyiv for shells, ammunition and other military aide from Ukraine as it battles Russian forces into a third year.
Meanwhile, Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegubov said on the Telegram social network that a 7, 4 years old and a baby about six months old were among the seven killed in the drone attack of a petrol station.
The attack sprayed nearby homes with burning fuel forcing at least 50 people to evacuate, Kharkiv mayor Igor Terekhov said earlier.
Saturday’s strike followed a string of night-time attacks in Kharkiv and a village east of the regional capital.
On Friday, Kyiv said a Russian strike on the northeastern region of Sumy killed three people and wounded four others.
The Sumy region borders Russia and has been targeted throughout Moscow’s almost two-year invasion, but is far from fighting hotspots that lie further south.
Ukraine’s interior minister, Igor Klymenko, said on Telegram that the victims were in a village “workshop of an agriculture firm” that was hit.
Klymenko said Russia launched seven guided bombs in the Sumy district.
He did not name the village but posted a photo of rescuers working through the rubble of what appeared to be a small destroyed building.
In Poland, Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak Kamysz said Russian President Vladimir Putin is not credible when he said Moscow will not invade the country and Latvia.
“Nothing can make us let down our guard... and such words certainly do not cause this, on the contrary,” Kosiniak-Kamysz told reporters on Friday.
“The more someone repeats that something is not planned, the more suspicious you must be, especially with such words,” Kosiniak-Kamysz, who is also Poland’s deputy prime minister, added.
In an interview released Thursday with American journalist Tucker Carlson, Putin said, “We have no interest in Poland, Latvia or anywhere else. Why would we do that? We simply don’t have any interest. It’s just threat mongering,” Putin said.