At a meeting of allied foreign ministers in Brussels on Tuesday 3 December, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stressed the importance of stepping up military support for Ukraine at a time when the future of American aid is uncertain with the arrival of Donald Trump as President.
“Ukraine has the right to defend itself and we have a duty to help. We must therefore continue to give it our unwavering support”, stressed Mr Rutte ahead of the meeting. “We are setting up our new NATO Command in Wiesbaden to coordinate security assistance and training for Ukraine. This makes our support more consistent and also more sustainable. But we will all have to do more, especially now”, he warned, adding that the stronger NATO’s military support, the more power Kyiv would have at the negotiating table. The Ukrainians and the Allies are worried about the possible end of American support and the fact that Donald Trump wants to push for peace negotiations.
Asked about Ukraine’s request for a formal invitation to join NATO, because the “only real” guarantee of security is “full membership” of the Alliance, Mr Rutte dismissed the issue. “We need to concentrate on what is needed now. And what is needed now is to ensure that military aid goes to Ukraine, because that is now crucial for them”, the Secretary General repeated, adding that Ukraine is on an irreversible path towards NATO.
In his view, the focus needs to be on “how to get more military aid to Ukraine, more missile defence in Ukraine, better coordination of everything that is being done”, including with the EU.
The Ukrainian minister, Andrii Sybiha, called on the Allies to step up their support. “We need strong decisions to strengthen ourselves and our capabilities”, he argued, highlighting air defence. “Ukraine urgently needs the supply of at least 20 additional air defence systems of the HAWK, NASAMS or IRIS-T type. This will avoid power cuts”, he told the media. He told Mr Rutte that his country needed 19 systems to protect 19 pieces of infrastructure, which would enable the country to “get through the winter”, at a time when Russia is continuing its air attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, including nuclear facilities, according to the minister. Mr Sybiha said he had sent a list of his country’s needs.
NATO’s Secretary General also warned against the ‘weaponisation of winter’.
“We must stop Russia and prevent its troops from advancing on our territory. Their logic is clear: they are trying to occupy as much territory as possible to strengthen their future negotiating position”, warned the Ukrainian minister. While a senior NATO official acknowledged that the supply of air defence was crucial, he pointed out that Ukraine also needed soldiers, adding that this would allow a good rotation of soldiers on the front line.
On the ground, Ukraine is in trouble. According to this senior NATO official, Russia has made “rapid gains” in recent months. While a few months ago, the talk was of advances of 10 metres a day, “now, on certain days, we’re talking about 10 km”, added this source. Russia also seems able to replace its losses – which reportedly amount to 30,000 people a month, and there are reports of 10,000 to 12,000 North Korean soldiers at Kursk.
At the time of going to press, the ministers of the allied countries were meeting with Mr Sybiha for a working dinner of the NATO-Ukraine Council. The new High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, will also be present. “NATO and the EU must work closely together to support Ukraine”, Mr Rutte explained earlier in the day. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)