NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday that members of the military alliance must ensure that Ukraine continues to obtain sufficient weapons to continue its counter-offensive against Russia, with Kiev incurring losses.
Kiev’s Western supporters scheduled to meet Thursday at NATO headquarters in Brussels in order to receive an update on the progress of the offensive from Ukraine’s defense minister.
“The most important thing is to make sure they (the Ukrainians) have the weapons, supplies and maintenance needed to continue the offensive,” Stoltenberg told reporters.
He pointed out that it known that Ukraine would suffer losses as it sought to penetrate the heavily fortified Russian lines.
He continued, “There will also be losses in terms of modern NATO equipment… Nobody expects no losses… It’s a fierce fight”.
Stoltenberg confirmed that the Ukrainian attack was making progress, but pointed out that it is still in its infancy and we don’t know whether this attack will be a turning point in the war”.
NATO members, led by the United States, have delivered weapons worth tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine to help it fight Russian forces since Moscow launched its war in February 2022.
These supplies drained Western stocks and prompted countries to try to replenish them.
In this context, Stoltenberg indicated that he expects NATO defense ministers to agree at Friday’s meeting to intensify targets for the amount of ammunition each member of the alliance must have.
In addition, NATO expects to approve a defense production action plan at a meeting scheduled for next month in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, to try to get Western defense industries to increase their production.
