As NATO looks at structuring long-term support for Ukraine, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has called on his counterparts to immediately provide his country, which faces numerous Russian air attacks, with more air defence systems. According to the Minister, in March alone, 94 ballistic missiles hit the country, which is increasingly short of anti-missile missiles.
"I urged the Allies to immediately provide Ukraine with more air defence systems, including the Patriots, which can intercept ballistic missiles”, he explained at the end of a NATO-Ukraine Council in Brussels, adding that he appreciated the Allies’ response. According to him, the Allies will be undertaking an “exercise to allocate, research and identify these additional air defence systems in order to bring them to Ukraine”.
“It is impossible to understand why the Allies cannot find additional batteries to take them to places where ballistic missiles are fired every day”, he also stressed, according to his ministry. Kharkiv, which some claim will be Russia’s next territorial target, and Odessa, another target, have been particularly hard hit in recent days. According to an Alliance official, Kyiv is short of ammunition and men.
Speaking to the media, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg acknowledged that the situation on the battlefield remained “serious” as Russia “pushes along the front line, mobilises more troops” and is prepared to “sacrifice men and material for marginal gains”. Ukraine needs “more air defence, more ammunition and more aid”, warned Mr Stoltenberg. He also emphasised that: “The NATO Allies must mobilise more support in the next few days and weeks, there is an urgent need”.
Asked about further announcements of air support by the Allies, Mr Stoltenberg explained that the Allies understood the urgency and that they would be looking at their inventories, “to see if they can provide more systems, in particular the Patriots, but also to ensure that the systems already in place have the ammunition and also the spare parts so that they can all function as they should”. “So it’s partly a question of systems, batteries, but also, to a large extent, a question of delivering interceptors to systems already in place. And several Allies have promised that they should redouble their efforts to see what more they can contribute”, he added.
German minister Annalena Baerbock, whose country co-chairs the ‘capabilities’ coalition, announced that she was going to call on the international community to check where its air defences are and what it can supply to Ukraine, and to see how the operation can be financed. “Every day, every month counts”, she warned. An initiative similar to the one launched by the Czech Republic for ammunition could be envisaged.
For his part, the Hungarian minister, Péter Szijjártó, explained on X (formerly Twitter) the challenges linked to the increase in arms shipments to Ukraine, highlighting the “exhaustion” of the Allies’ arms reserves. In his view, the Allies’ desire to “empty the arsenals” for Ukraine is a clear sign of the difficulties encountered in maintaining arms supplies, and he criticised the ineffectiveness of such measures in changing the course of the conflict. He called for all efforts to be focused on establishing peace.
A half-hearted celebration
The day began with the celebration of the 75th anniversary of “the strongest, most enduring and most successful Alliance in history”, according to its Secretary General, and the 15th, 20th and 25th anniversaries of the accession of certain Allies. The Washington Treaty was signed on 4 April 1949 by 12 members. Since then, 20 others have joined the Alliance, including Sweden just a few days ago. “Just 14 paragraphs over a few pages”, recalled Mr Stoltenberg, who said that “never has a single document with so few words meant so much to so many people, so much security, so much prosperity, and so much peace”.
I don’t believe in America alone. Just as I don’t believe in Europe alone. I believe in America and Europe together, in NATO, because we are stronger and safer together”, stressed the Secretary General at a time when threats are hanging over the United States’ continued membership of the Alliance if Donald Trump is re-elected President. According to Mr Stoltenberg, Europe needs America “for its security” and North America needs Europe. “European Allies provide world-class militaries, vast intelligence networks and unique diplomatic leverage, multiplying America’s might”, he argued, adding that, through NATO, the United States has more friends and more Allies than any other major power.
Although NATO’s Secretary General did not mention the Russian invasion of Ukraine in his speech, several ministers from countries celebrating the anniversary of their accession, mainly former Eastern Bloc countries or those integrated into the Soviet Union, recalled the threat still posed by Russia. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)