BRUSSELS (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that there was “no sense of fatigue” among NATO allies when it came to helping Ukraine.
“We must and we will continue to support Ukraine,” he said after a NATO-Ukraine meeting in Brussels, adding that NATO allies were unanimous on this position and that he was also hearing continued support for Ukraine in both chambers of the U.S. Congress.
Kyiv has been concerned that the Israel-Hamas war could divert international attention away from its efforts to defeat Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged the West earlier on Wednesday to ramp up arms production.
The European Union has delivered about 300,000 of its promised 1 million artillery shells to Ukraine so far, he said.
“We need to create a Euro-Atlantic common area of defence industries,” Kuleba said before meeting the NATO foreign ministers, adding this would ensure both Ukraine’s security and that of NATO countries themselves.
Kyiv has recently engaged in a concerted drive to entice leading global arms manufacturers to set up operations in Ukraine, part of a bid to diversify its reliance on weapons and ammunition given by its allies.
“It is important that our solidarity with Ukraine is not only demonstrated in words but also in deeds,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, urging allies to do more. “These are concrete actions, we need more of them and we need sustained and stepped up support.”
Russia has amassed a large missile stockpile ahead of winter, Stoltenberg warned.
Russia “is now weaker militarily, politically and economically,” he said. “At the same time we must not underestimate Russia,” he added, stressing that Russia had been making new attempts to strike Ukraine’s power grid and energy infrastructure, “trying to leave Ukraine in the dark and cold.”
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