Forty countries gathered in Germany to support Ukraine
As Russia seeks full control of southern Ukraine and the Donbass region, some 40 countries are meeting today at the US Air Force Base in Ramstein, Germany, at the invitation of the United States, with the aim of “creating additional capabilities for the Ukrainian armed forces, ‘ Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said yesterday.
“They can win if they have the right equipment and the right support,” he said after a trip to Kyiv on Sunday, where he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, accompanied by Foreign Minister Anthony Blinken.
The United States, which provides the bulk of international military aid to Ukraine, wants “to give them the kind of support, artillery and ammunition that are effective at this stage of the fight,” the Pentagon chief told a news conference in Poland, not far from the Ukrainian border.
Kyiv is desperately crying out for heavy artillery and armor to hold off Russian forces in the country’s vast southern and eastern plains, but the Russian-made equipment on which Ukrainian forces have been trained is running short. Some Eastern European countries that still have them in stock send them to Kyiv, sometimes in exchange for new-generation American weapons. So the Pentagon chief and Antony Blinken spoke to the press from a warehouse where tons of humanitarian and military supplies were stacked up to be loaded onto trucks for shipment to Ukraine.
The United States, limiting supplies to “defense weapons” early in the Russian invasion, began sending US-made heavy weapons, such as howitzers and various armored vehicles, to Kyiv. “We’re talking to colleagues from other countries to get the same type of armor, and we’re getting early indications that many countries will volunteer,” the Pentagon chief assured. France has already announced that it will send Caesar guns with a range of 40 kilometers, and Britain has donated Starstreak anti-aircraft missiles and armored vehicles.
The meeting is also intended to ensure Ukraine’s longer-term security after the end of the war.
“It’s mostly about modernization and making sure their military is still strong and sustainable. These are not security guarantees, but their actual military stance,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Friday.
This meeting does not take place within the framework of NATO, although the Secretary General of the Atlantic Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, is scheduled to attend. “NATO as an alliance does not provide military assistance to Ukraine, so within NATO it is not being done at all,” Kirby said.
Among the forty invited countries we find the European allies of the United States, but also more distant countries like Australia and Japan, which fear that a Russian victory in Ukraine will set a precedent and further China’s territorial ambitions. Finland and Sweden, traditionally neutral countries that have been considering NATO membership since Russian forces invaded Ukraine, are also on the guest list.