BUCHAREST — NATO chief
Jens Stoltenberg
warned Tuesday that Russia was using winter as a “weapon of war” against
Ukraine, as Western allies meeting in Bucharest planned to help Kyiv mend its
damaged power grid.
اضافة اعلان
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was to announce
“substantial” financial aid to help Ukraine deal with damaged infrastructure on
the sidelines of a meeting of NATO’s foreign ministers.
A senior US official said the assistance would “not
be the end” and pointed out the Biden administration had budgeted $1.1 billion
for energy spending in Ukraine and neighboring Moldova.
A Russian campaign of missile strikes has severely
damaged Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and plunged millions into darkness as
the country braces against the first snows and chill winds of winter.
Stoltenberg said “the message from all of us will be
that we need to do more” to help
Kyiv fix its gas and electricity
infrastructure and provide air defense to help it protect itself better.
He said he
expected Russia to carry out more attacks on Ukraine’s grid as the Kremlin
suffers defeats on the ground and warned Europe should “be prepared for more
refugees”.
“Russia is actually failing on the battlefield. In
response to that they are now attacking civilian targets, cities because
they’re not able to win territory,” Stoltenberg said at the start of the
two-day meeting.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba was to meet
his NATO counterparts to urge them to send more weaponry for Kyiv and
assistance in coping with Moscow’s attacks.
‘Keep calm, give tanks’
“This targeting of civilian infrastructure, of energy infrastructure is
obviously designed to try and freeze the
Ukrainians into submission,” said
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.
“I don’t think
it’ll be successful.”
Allies have given
arms worth billions of dollars to Ukraine, but Kyiv is pleading for more air
defense, tanks, and longer-range missiles to push the Kremlin’s forces back.
But there are
growing concerns that weapon stores in some NATO countries are running low as
stockpiles have been diverted to Ukraine.
Lithuanian
Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said his request to fellow NATO
ministers was simple: “Keep calm and give tanks”.
Germany, which
currently chairs the G7, has convened a meeting Tuesday afternoon on the
sidelines of the NATO gathering to discuss the energy crisis caused by the war
in Ukraine.
The US will call
on the other member countries to strengthen their aid in this area, according
to the US official.
‘Door is open’
NATO says the meeting in Bucharest will showcase its unity on continuing
to support Ukraine as Moscow’s war against its neighbor drags on into its 10th
month.
The alliance will
not, however, make any progress on Ukraine’s request to join, first made some
14 years ago when NATO first pledged that Kyiv would one day become a member.
Stoltenberg
insisted that the “door is open” to new members but said the focus now was on
assisting Ukraine in its fight with Moscow.
NATO has
bolstered its eastern flank in the face of Russia’s war by sending more troops
and equipment to countries like Romania, neighboring Ukraine.
Romania has been
hard hit by the war and around two million people fleeing Ukraine have passed
through the country.
Non-NATO Moldova,
which has also seen blackouts caused by the fallout from the attacks on
neighboring Ukraine, will attend the alliance’s talks on Thursday along with
Bosnia and Georgia.
Besides the war in
Ukraine, the ministers will take stock of progress in the accession of NATO
candidates Finland and
Sweden, already ratified by 28 of the 30 member
countries but which remains suspended awaiting the green light from Hungary and
Turkey.
The Finnish,
Swedish, and Turkish foreign ministers were meeting on the sidelines of the
meeting, but Ankara has played down hope for any quick breakthrough.
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