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NATO countries pledge more funds to help Ukraine weather winter under fire

NATO countries pledge more funds to help Ukraine weather winter under fire

A senior US official noted that President Joe Biden’s administration had budgeted $1.1 billion for spending on power grids in Ukraine and neighboring Moldova, which is also suffering from the devastation.

A ferocious Russian missile bombing campaign dramatically decimated Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and left millions of people in the dark.

Effort

Stoltenberg said that “the message from all of us will be that we need to do more” to help Ukraine repair its gas and electricity infrastructure, as well as provide air defense to help Ukraine better protect itself.

The NATO chief said he expected Russia to carry out more attacks on Ukraine’s power grid, warning that Europe should “be prepared for more refugees.”

“Russia is actually failing on the battlefield. In response to that, it is now attacking civilian targets because it cannot gain territory,” Stoltenberg said at the opening of the transatlantic alliance meeting.

The current attacks on heating and power supply centers “to keep people in their apartments during a winter when temperatures could drop to 30 degrees below zero are a terrible war crime,” the German minister said. of Justice, Marco Buschmann.

Orders and limits

At a time when the power cuts – the distribution company only ensures three hours of supply a day – and the cold lead the Government of Volodimir Zelenski to plan a possible evacuation of kyiv, Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba was scheduled to meet with his NATO counterparts to ask for more weapons and assistance to deal with Russian attacks.

The attacks on civilian and energy infrastructure “is obviously designed to try to freeze the Ukrainians into submission,” said British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, adding, however: “I don’t think they will succeed.”

NATO members have already sent billions of dollars worth of arms and medical and telecommunications equipment to Ukraine, but the country is calling for more air defense resources, tanks and long-range missiles to push back Russian forces.

However, growing concern about the sharp decline and near depletion of strategic stocks, especially ammunition, in several NATO countries following shipments to Ukraine is already evident.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis noted that the demands on NATO ministers were simple, summed up in the slogan “Keep calm and send tanks.”

NATO sources insist that the meeting in Bucharest will show the unity of the transatlantic alliance in its support for Ukraine.

However, the alliance should not move forward with Ukraine’s application to join the bloc.

Stoltenberg insisted that the “door is open” for new members, but added that the focus for now is on helping Ukraine in the face of the Russian offensive.

In addition to the war in Ukraine, the NATO ministers will take stock of the progress in the accession of Finland and Sweden, already ratified by 28 of the 30 member countries but still suspended pending the green light from Turkey and Hungary . The foreign ministers of Sweden, Finland and Turkey met on the sidelines of the meeting, but the Turkish government has downplayed hopes of a quick breakthrough.

Source: Ambito

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