NATO has began coordinating regular deliveries of enormous weapons packages to Ukraine after the Netherlands said it would supply air defense equipment, ammunition and other military aid price 500 million euros ($578 million).
Sweden also announced Tuesday it will contribute $275 million to a joint effort together with its Nordic neighbors Denmark and Norway to supply $500 million price of air defenses, anti-tank weapons, ammunition and spare parts.
Two deliveries of kit, most of it bought in the US, are expected this month, although the Nordic package is predicted to reach in September. The equipment is supplied based on Ukraine’s priority needs on the battlefield. NATO allies then locate the weapons and ammunition and send them on.
“Packages will likely be prepared rapidly and issued frequently,” NATO said Monday.
Air defense systems are in best need. The United Nations has said that Russia’s relentless pounding of urban areas behind the front line has killed greater than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians.
Russia’s larger army can be making slow but costly progress along the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line. Currently, it’s waging an operation to take the eastern city of Pokrovsk, a logistical hub whose fall could allow it to drive deeper into Ukraine.
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European allies and Canada are buying a lot of the equipment they plan to send from the US, which has greater stocks of ready military materiel, in addition to more practical weapons. The Trump administration just isn’t giving any arms to Ukraine.
The brand new deliveries will come on top of other pledges of military equipment.
The Kiel Institute, which tracks support to Ukraine, estimates that as of June, European countries had provided 72 billion euros ($83 billion) price of military aid because the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, in comparison with $65 billion in U.S. aid.
Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans said that “American air defense systems and munitions, particularly, are crucial for Ukraine to defend itself.” Announcing the deliveries Monday, he said Russia’s attacks are “pure terror, intended to interrupt Ukraine.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude to the Netherlands, posting on social media that “Ukraine, and thus the entire of Europe, will likely be higher shielded from Russian terror.”
He said the deliveries are coming “at a time when Russia is attempting to scale up its strikes. This may definitely help protect the lives of our people!”
Germany said Friday it’ll deliver two more Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine in the approaching days. It agreed to the move after securing assurances that the U.S. will prioritize the delivery of latest Patriots to Germany to backfill its stocks. These weapon systems are only made within the U.S.
As a corporation, NATO provides only non-lethal assistance to Ukraine like uniforms, tents, medical supplies and logistics support. The 32-nation military alliance has mostly sought to guard NATO territory from possible Russian attack and avoid being dragged right into a war against a nuclear power.
But its support role has expanded since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January, whilst his administration insists European allies must now handle their very own security and that of their war-ravaged neighbor. Trump has made no public promise of weapons or economic support for Ukraine.
Trump said on July 28 that the U.S. is “going to be sending now military equipment and other equipment to NATO, they usually’ll be doing what they need, but I suppose it’s for probably the most part working with Ukraine.”
—Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, and Kirsten Grieshaber and David Keyton in Berlin contributed to this report.
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