Ukraine calls on NATO countries to speed up aid delivery – 30.11.2022, 04:14

Ukraine called on NATO members meeting in Bucharest on Tuesday to speed up the delivery of weapons and electrical equipment to help the country, torn apart by more than nine months of war, overcome damage to energy infrastructure caused by Russian bombing.

“Last time I said three words: weapons, weapons, weapons. This time I have three more words: faster, faster and faster,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kouleba said shortly before a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. .

What are Ukraine’s most pressing needs? Patriot air defense generators and missiles, he beat.

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to use winter as a “weapon of war” against Ukraine, launching “deliberate attacks” on civilian infrastructure to deprive the country of heat, electricity and water. This two-day meeting of the heads of NATO diplomacy in the huge palace where the Romanian Parliament is located.

The goal of the Kremlin is “to inflict as much pain as possible on the citizens of Ukraine in the fight against the Russian occupation, in order to try to break their commitments and unity.”

At the meeting of the enlarged G7 chaired by Germany on the outskirts of NATO, mobilization was requested in the face of the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.

American Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who arrived in Bucharest on Monday evening, announced a 53 million dollar financial aid in addition to the already released 55 million envelope for the purchase of generators to come to the aid of Ukraine.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Bucharest, Romania on November 29, 2022 (AFP / Daniel MIHAILESCU)

This amount will be spent on the purchase of electrical equipment (including transformers), which will be delivered to Ukraine “soon”, the American source said.

In total, the Biden administration allocated $1.1 billion for energy in Ukraine and Moldova.

The American aid is part of the prospect of the international conference of donors on “Supporting Ukrainian civil resistance” to be held in France on December 13.

– “Let’s send tanks” –

In early October, Russia launched a massive campaign of missile strikes targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. According to figures cited by the Ukrainian government, 25-30% of this infrastructure was damaged.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kouleba (l) and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Bucharest, Romania on November 29, 2022 (AFP / Andrey PUNGOVSCHI)

“What the Russians are doing is specifically targeting high-voltage transformer stations, not just the power stations themselves to disrupt the entire energy chain from generation to distribution,” the American official explained.

According to the NATO secretary general, who reiterated the alliance’s “open door” policy towards Ukraine, “the message from all of us will be that we need to do more to help Kiev, including on air defense issues.”

“Russia is failing on the battlefield. They’re responding by going after civilian targets, cities, because they can’t gain territory,” he added.

“On the first day of the NATO summit held in Bucharest, a number of concrete and important statements were made,” Oleksiy Arestovich, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in a press release.

Thus, he emphasized that “Ukraine can become a member of the alliance after the end of military operations”. And “support to Ukraine will be expanded in terms of energy and military aid.”

Map of the situation in Ukraine as of 8 a.m. GMT on November 29 (AFP /)

During the NATO summit, British minister James Cleverly said: “This tactic, targeting civil infrastructure, energy, is clearly aimed at trying to freeze the Ukrainians into submission.” “I don’t think it will succeed,” he said.

But as supplies begin to dwindle, there is growing concern over the long-term sustainability of these efforts.

“Let’s calm down and send tanks,” said Lithuanian Gabrielius Landsbergis.

Germany has announced the upcoming supply of “more than 350 generators” to Kiev.

The EU, for its part, has requested the activation of a civil protection mechanism for the delivery of nearly 500 generators and 2,000 winter tents to Ukraine as a result of the cooperation of 17 member states.

France, in turn, has contributed through 100 generators that arrived in Suceava, the European center of Romania, and will soon be delivered to Ukraine.

From Kyiv, President Zelensky called the situation on the front line “difficult”.

“Despite heavy losses, the invaders are still trying to advance in the Donetsk region, gain a foothold in the Luhansk region, and plan something in the south,” he said in his address to the nation on Tuesday evening. “But Ukraine will resist,” he assured.

Romania, as well as neighboring Moldova, has been badly affected by the war in Ukraine, with more than 2 million people fleeing the country. Bucharest currently accepts about 86,000 refugees.

In addition to the war in Ukraine, NATO ministers have drawn up a progress report on the accession of Finland and Sweden, which has already been ratified by 28 of the 30 member states, but stalled by a green light from Turkey and Hungary.

Ministers from Finland, Sweden and Turkey met on the sidelines of a meeting in Bucharest on Tuesday, but without any notable results, Turkey’s Mevlud Çavuşoğlu contented himself with expressing Ankara’s “expectations” in a tweet.

Since May, Turkey has blocked two northern European countries from joining the Atlantic alliance, linking their membership to the fight against Kurdish movements and their supporters on their soil.