NATO stands ready to maintain its support for Ukraine in the war against Russia for years to come, including helping Kiev transition from Sovietera weapons to modern Western weapons and systems, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said today.
He spoke after the Kremlin warned that the supply of Western arms to Ukraine, including heavy weapons, poses a threat to the security of the European continent and “causes instability”.
“We have to be prepared for the long term,” said Stoltenberg at a youth summit in Brussels. “There is every possibility that this war will drag on and continue for months and years.”
The NATO chief said the West will continue to press Russian President Vladimir Putin as hard as it can to end the invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special military operation,” through sanctions and economic and military aid to Kyiv.
“NATO allies are preparing to provide longterm support and also to help Ukraine transition from old Sovietera equipment to more modern NATO weapons and systems, which will also require more training,” Stoltenberg said .
Most of the heavy weapons NATO countries have sent to Ukraine so far are Soviet weapons, which are still in the stockpiles of Eastern European NATO member countries, but the United States and some other allies have started shipping Western howitzers to Kyiv to deliver.
Picture: UOL Art.No
Germany on Tuesday announced it would send antiaircraft weaponequipped Gepard tanks to Ukraine, the first time Berlin has agreed to heavy arms supplies to Kyiv.
Ukraine’s calls for heavy weapons have grown louder since Moscow shifted its offensive to the Donbas, an eastern region of flat, open terrain considered more suitable for tank battles than the areas to the north around the capital Kyiv, where the Much of the previous fighting took place.