NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is ready to support Ukraine in the war against Russia for years, including helping Kyiv to replace old Sovietera weapons with modern Western military equipment, Secretary General of the military alliance Jens Stoltenberg said at the conference Thursday (04/28).
He made the statement after the Kremlin said that the supply of Western arms to Ukraine, including heavy weapons, posed a threat to the security of the European continent and “provoked instability”.
The Russian government has accused Western countries of encouraging Ukraine to attack Russian territory
“We have to be prepared for the long term,” said Stoltenberg at a youth summit in Brussels. “There is a 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 has sent to Ukraine so far are Sovietbuilt weapons that are still in stockpiles of the alliance’s member states in Eastern Europe, but the US and some other allies have begun to supply Kyiv with Western weapons to supply howitzers.
2 of 2 A man walks by destroyed buildings in Mariupol April 22, 2022 — Photo: REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko
A man walks by destroyed buildings in Mariupol April 22, 2022 — Photo: REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko
On Tuesday, Germany announced that it would send “Gepard” tanks equipped with antiaircraft weapons to Ukraine. It was the first time that Berlin agreed to send heavy weapons to Kyiv.
Ukraine’s demands for heavy weapons have increased since Moscow focused its offensive on the Donbass, a region in the east of the country whose mostly flat and open terrain is considered more suitable for tank battles than the areas to the north around the capital Kyiv, where much of the previous fighting took place.