NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg promised Thursday that they will “support Ukraine for as long as necessary” and that the military alliance will provide “more air defense systems” to help kyiv counter cruise missiles and Russian drones.
Stoltenberg made the remarks at the start of a meeting with defense ministers from member states aimed at reaffirming support for Ukraine after a series of airstrikes by Russia. The appointment comes after 50 nations met on Wednesday to discuss support for kyiv.
The conflict between kyiv and Moscow shows no signs of respite. In Belgorod, a Russian city located less than 100 km from Kharkov, Ukraine’s second largest city in the northeast, a bombing hit a residential building, local authorities reported.
And in recent days, an avalanche of missiles, rockets and drones fell on several Ukrainian cities, in what was presented by Putin as a retaliation for the explosion on the bridge that connects the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014, with the Russian territory.
The bombings left at least 19 dead, more than 100 injured and severe damage to energy infrastructure, according to Ukrainian authorities. On Thursday, the power grid stabilized again, Ukrainian operator Ukrenergo reported on Facebook.
In the face of these new attacks, kyiv celebrated the commitment of its Western allies to send it anti-aircraft defense systems, a support to which the United Kingdom joined on Thursday. Ukraine recently received from Germany the Iris-T SLM system, one of the most advanced.
“The AMRAAM rockets … will be supplied in the coming weeks for use with the NASAMS air defense systems promised by the United States,” the British Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
The promised rockets provide Ukraine with the ability to shoot down cruise missiles for the first time.
“We have our own device, but that is not enough, we have a very large country, with a lot of equipment to protect,” insisted the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, before the parliamentarians of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.
The UN General Assembly on Wednesday overwhelmingly condemned “the illegal annexation” of four Ukrainian territories by Russia, and sent, according to Joe Biden, a “clear message” to Moscow.
The resolution, presented by Albania and Ukraine itself, and co-sponsored by some seventy countries, was approved by 143 votes in favor, five against (Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Nicaragua and Syria) and 35 abstentions, among them, China, Bolivia, Algeria, Pakistan, Honduras or Mali.