Ukraine to allies: Speed up support
BUCHAREST: Ukraine on Tuesday urged members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to speed up weapons deliveries and help restore its shattered power grid, as Western allies vowed to bolster support to help Kyiv endure the winter in the face of Russia’s attacks.
Moscow has unleashed waves of strikes against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as its troops are pushed back on the ground, plunging millions of people into darkness.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called for supplies of weapons, especially advanced air defense systems, to come “faster, faster, faster” as he joined a two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Romania’s capital Bucharest.
“When we have transformers and generators, we can restore our system — our energy grid — and provide people with decent living conditions,” he said. “When we have air defense systems, we will be able to protect this infrastructure from the next
Russian missile strikes.”
“In a nutshell, Patriots and transformers are what Ukraine needs the most,” the top diplomat added, referring to the United States-made Patriot missile defense system.
The appeal came as NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of targeting infrastructure in a bid to use the winter as “a weapon of war” against Ukraine.
Stoltenberg said NATO allies had pledged more support for Ukraine to fix its infrastructure and would keep on sending arms and air defenses to help protect itself better.
He said there was an “ongoing discussion” on supplying the Patriot systems that Washington
and others have so far refused to give to Kyiv.
“NATO is not a party to the war. But we will continue to support Ukraine. For as long as it takes, we will not back down,” Stoltenberg said.
He said he expected Russia to carry out more attacks on Ukraine’s grid as the Kremlin suffered defeats on the ground. He warned that Europe should “be prepared for more refugees.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced a package worth $53 million “to support the acquisition of critical electricity grid equipment” by Kyiv.
A senior US official said the assistance would not be the last and pointed out that President Joe Biden’s administration had budgeted $1.1 billion for energy spending in Ukraine and neighboring Moldova.
‘Keep calm, give tanks’
Allies have given arms worth billions of dollars to Ukraine, but Kyiv is pleading for more air defense, tanks and longer-range missiles to push the Kremlin’s forces back.
But there are growing concerns that weapon stores in some NATO countries are running low as stockpiles have been diverted to Ukraine.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said his request to fellow NATO ministers was simple: “Keep calm and give tanks.”
Germany, which currently heads the Group of Seven, convened a meeting on the sidelines of the NATO gathering to discuss the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.
German Foreign Minister Annalena
Baerbock said the participants had looked to “better understand and prioritize the most urgent needs” ahead of an international conference in France’s capital Paris on December 13.
Separately, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and said Berlin would dispatch 350 generators and provide financial assistance to repair energy infrastructure worth 56 million euros ($57 million).
Zelenskyy said they had discussed cooperation, both bilateral and in international institutions.
“The priorities are clear: protection against missile terror, energy restoration, food security,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address on Tuesday, noting that “the situation at the front is difficult.”
“Despite extremely big Russian losses, the occupiers are still trying to advance in the Donetsk region, gain a foothold in the Luhansk region, move in the Kharkiv region. They are planning something in the south,” he said. “But we are holding out.”