Ukraine still has a chance to prevail on the battlefield after Moscow took advantage of delays in western military and financial aid, North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.
“Ukraine has been outgunned for months,” the NATO chief said at a joint press conference in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday. “But it’s not too late for Ukraine to prevail.”
Fighting has become more heated along the front line in eastern Ukraine, with Russia exploiting its advantage over Kyiv’s forces along several axes, Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s army commander-in-chief, said Sunday. Six months of waiting as US Republicans held up a $61 billion aid package had allowed Russia’s military to “seize the initiative,” Zelensky told Western allies during a meeting of the so-called Ramstein group on Friday.
“For months, the US was unable to agree a package, and European allies have been unable to deliver ammunition at the scale we promised,” Stoltenberg said. “This means that few Russian missiles and drones have been shot down and Russia has been able to push forward along the frontline.”
Zelensky thanked Ukraine’s partners for new aid packages and reiterated that stabilization on the frontline and further Ukrainian counteroffensive actions are dependent on timely weapons supplies and financial aid. Some weapons “have started to arrive,” he said. “But we have to speed up the process.”
The allies have heard the president’s appeal and have agreed to step up the support, Stoltenberg told reporters.
Among recent announcements on aid to Ukraine:
US President Joe Biden last week signed a $61 billion package including critical air defense and artillery ammunition.
The UK last week announced £500 million ($626 million) of new spending — including more Storm Shadow long-range missiles — taking total UK military aid to Ukraine this financial year to £3 billion.
The Netherlands will release an extra €1 billion ($1.07 billion) in military aid as well as €400 million to bolster the Ukrainian economy and fund critical energy infrastructure repairs, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, on April 12.
“Other allies are looking into what more they can do, and I expect new announcements soon,” Stoltenberg said in Kyiv.