The NATO countries have promised Ukraine further arms supplies. Kiev should also receive the urgently needed anti-aircraft systems. Who exactly delivers what and when is an open question.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj has been waiting for this sentence for a long time: “The NATO defense ministers have decided to provide more military support, including anti-aircraft systems,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg after a virtual exchange with the NATO-Ukraine Council.
Everything is used
He doesn’t say anything about who exactly delivers what; this will be announced in the next few days. He expressly thanked Germany for providing a “Patriot” defense system from its stocks.
Stoltenberg made it clear that they had an overview of what was stored in the depots of NATO members – so it would be possible to give something to Ukraine. He couldn’t give any details, it was confidential. Everything is needed: ammunition, spare parts and also money. The Netherlands has pledged four billion euros. There is also a lot of hope in the American members of Congress. They want to decide on Saturday whether they will release around $60 billion for Ukraine, which has been blocked for weeks.
Conference marathon on the Ukraine and Middle East war
The NATO-Ukraine Council was the conclusion of a real conference marathon this week: special meeting of the EU foreign ministers, G7 meeting on the Italian island of Capri, conference of heads of state and government in Brussels. In addition to the situation in the Middle East, all meetings were also about better supplying Ukraine with anti-aircraft systems – especially after Israel successfully repelled an attack by Iran.
For Ian Lesser from the Germans Marshall Fund in Brussels, a transatlantic think tank, the situation in the two countries is not comparable. “Ukraine’s air defense problem is much more complex when you compare it to Israel. The country is much larger and the situation is different,” says Lesser.
Different Missile systems
In addition, not all EU countries have “Patriot” systems. France and Italy, for example, rely on the SAMP/T system, which is equipped with Aster missiles, which are also called “anti-everything missiles”. French President Emmanuel Macron stated that this system is incompatible with Ukrainian missiles.
They also need it to protect their own nuclear weapons: “We have a different system that is used by fewer actors. There are few systems that are also suitable for protecting nuclear power plants and that is why we use the air defense system on French soil.”
And so it will be interesting to see what promises the NATO members will make in the next few days. “We don’t need words, we need weapons,” is the repeated message from Kiev. It seems that this request has been heard.
Sabrina Fritz, ARD Brussels, tagesschau, April 19, 2024 5:54 p.m