The US Secretary of Defense confirmed a new aid plan of $ 1 billion in kyiv on Wednesday, the most important section since the start of the conflict.
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No question of “dropping” or “running out of steam”: Lloyd Austin, the US Secretary for Defense, wanted to re -mobilize the 30 NATO member countries and around twenty states invited during a meeting – The third – of the “contact group” on Ukraine, Wednesday, June 15, in Brussels. This Mini-Sommet, held on the sidelines of a meeting of the Defense Ministers which was to continue on Thursday, above all allowed the American delegation to confirm an announcement made a few hours earlier by the White House: Washington will unlock new aid $ 1 billion (960 million euros) in favor of Ukraine, a large part of heavy armaments. In total, the United States will have so far allocated $ 5.6 billion to kyiv.
The Ukrainian defense minister Anna Maliar recently deplored that only 10 % of the necessary weapons were delivered to her country, and an adviser to President Volodomyr Zelensky said that the Ratio of his army in front of the Russian forces was 1 against 10 in terms of artillery. Present in Wednesday’s meeting, Oleksiy Reznikov, the Minister of Defense, insisted on the urgency to strengthen support for the Ukrainian army, faced with a massive offensive of Russia in the Donbass basin.
An embarrassing situation for a Western camp which, since the invasion triggered on February 24, wants to display its determination to help the attacked country at all costs. “I understand, I took part in a lot of fights and, when you fight a fight, you never receive enough,” tried to temper, Wednesday evening, Mr. Austin. NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, underlined the need to quickly endow the Ukrainian army with heavy armaments, anti -aircraft systems and long -range systems, but “such efforts take time”, added -It, evoking questions of training, maintenance and maintenance of the materials delivered.
a “imminent” delivery
According to the Norwegian official, the Atlantic Alliance summit, at the end of the month in Madrid, should, in any case, decide a new massive kyiv aid plan. President Zelensky was invited to participate in this meeting supposed, moreover, the new “strategic concept” of the alliance with, as a key, the strengthening of its flank is, thanks to the prepositioning of equipment and additional forces . Combat groups will be developed, such as air and sea presence and Cyber defense capabilities.
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