Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba is urging Western states to say what security guarantees he offers to Ukraine, which has “given up its nuclear arsenal for the sake of world peace.”
The Ukrainian official stated in a post on his Twitter account that Ukraine kept knocking on NATO’s door to receive support, but it “never opened”.
However, the Alliance Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday that NATO was ready to continue providing military aid to Ukraine for years in its war with Russia, including by facilitating the transfer of Soviet-made weapons to the Ukrainian army and modern Western weapons.
“We have to be prepared for the long term,” because “there is an absolute possibility that this war will last for months or years,” Stoltenberg told a meeting in Brussels.
“NATO allies are preparing to provide long-term support and also to help Ukraine move from old Soviet military equipment to more modern weapons and systems according to NATO standards, which will require more training,” added the Secretary General.
If at the beginning of the Russian invasion the military aid to the Ukrainians focused on small arms and portable anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, in the context of the new phase of the war in which Russia focuses on the eastern part of Ukraine, its army increasingly needs heavy weapons.
Most of the weapons transferred to Kiev by NATO were Soviet-made equipment taken from the stocks of Eastern European armies, but recently several NATO members, primarily the United States, began to offer Ukraine howitzers, as well as other categories of weapons. heavy weapons.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned the West on Thursday not to “pump” weapons into Ukraine or other countries, such as Georgia or Moldova.
“The tendency to bomb weapons in Ukraine and other countries is part of the kind of action that threatens the security of the continent and causes instability,” Peskov told reporters when asked about a statement by British Foreign Minister Liz Truss, who had said that it is essential that not only Ukraine be supplied with heavy weapons, but also the Republic of Moldova, Georgia and the countries of the Western Balkans.