According to Deutsche Welle radio on February 15, NATO defense ministers decided at a spring meeting to build a new training center for Ukrainian soldiers in Poland. While no new commitments were made at the meeting to supply the Ukrainian army with large-scale ** systems, the UK and Latvia agreed to provide thousands of armed drones.
According to the report, 14 NATO countries and candidate country Sweden agreed to massively expand ammunition production. German Defense Minister Pistorius promised that Germany plans to supply Ukraine with 3 to 4 times more ammunition this year than in 2023. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that NATO countries have signed contracts for the production of ammunition worth tens of billions of dollars in recent months. Stoltenberg pointed out that the US Congress has not released more funds so far, which has led to the stagnation of financial aid, which has caused a bottleneck (to Ukraine). European allies and Canada are only somewhat capable of substituting for this aid and *** Therefore, he called on Republicans in the US Congress to release the funds. Stoltenberg and a number of ministers of European NATO countries are ready to discuss this issue with US parliamentarians at the Munich Security Conference, which opens on the 16th.
According to Russia's "Independent" on February 16, NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg recently expressed his position on the new batch of military assistance to Ukraine, and when talking about the provision of equipment and ammunition by NATO countries to Ukraine, Stoltenberg expressed appreciation for the EU's recent decision to revise the EU budget in order to provide assistance to Kyiv.
According to the report, Stoltenberg said at a meeting of defense ministers of NATO member states held on the 15th that in 2024, the total defense spending of NATO European members will be about 380 billion US dollars. The total military budgets of the United States and Canada this year are estimated to exceed $900 billion. Part of this money (almost 10%) can be used to help Ukraine. Due to political disagreements within the United States, the exact amount cannot be determined for the time being. But apparently, NATO has already decided to increase military assistance to Kyiv. This was also reflected in the results of the ** meeting of the U.S.-led International Contact Group on the Defense of Ukraine held on the 14th.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Umerov called the meeting fruitful and noted that cooperation with partners in the field of production of unmanned systems will be strengthened. "There will be more unmanned equipment," he said. He noted that eight countries will help Ukraine produce unmanned systems: the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Sweden and Estonia. In addition, 20 countries "will help Ukraine in mine clearance."
Dutch Defense Minister Kaesa Olongren presented a number of details of how NATO countries are helping Kyiv now and in the future. She said the Netherlands had joined a military alliance that would provide Ukraine with advanced unmanned equipment and strengthen its ability to attack Russia. The UK and the Netherlands are already helping Ukraine build a fleet of drones. Olongren said that now with the establishment of an alliance to help Ukraine develop and produce drones, the Ukrainian army will have a stronger combat power.
Some Western ** reports that at this meeting of the International Contact Group on the Defense of Ukraine, participants paid special attention to Kyiv's maritime operations. On the 14th, Ukraine** announced that several Ukrainian Magura V5 unmanned boats successfully attacked a ship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The veracity of this matter is not known at this time. The Russian Defense Ministry did not comment on the reports. At the same time, it is said that the Ukrainian Special Technologies Import and Export Corporation presented the Magura V5 unmanned boat at the UMEX 2024 unmanned systems exhibition in the UAE in January 2024.
Russian military expert Nikolai Shulykin told the Independent: "The Magura V5 unmanned boat is not entirely developed by Ukraine, but is a collective creation of the military-industrial complex of NATO countries. They intend to involve Ukraine to test the tactics of using a 'mosquito fleet'. (Compiled by Zhu Lifeng).