NATO leaders plan to pledge to keep pouring arms and ammunition into Ukraine at current levels for at least another year. U.S.

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO leaders plan to pledge next week to keep pouring arms and ammunition into Ukraine at current levels for at least another year, hoping to reassure the war-ravaged country of their ongoing support and show Russian President Vladimir Putin that they will not walk away.

U.S. President Joe Biden and his counterparts meet in Washington for a three-day summit beginning Tuesday to mark the military alliance’s 75th anniversary as Russian troops press their advantage along Ukraine’s eastern front in the third year of the war.

Speaking to reporters Friday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said NATO’s 32 member countries have been spending around 40 billion euros ($43 billion) each year on military equipment for Ukraine since the war began in February 2022 and that this should be “a minimum baseline” going forward.

“I expect allies will decide at the summit to sustain this level within the next year,” Stoltenberg said. He said the amount would be shared among nations based on their economic growth and that the leaders will review the figure when they meet again in 2025.

NATO is desperate to do more for Ukraine but is struggling to find new ways. Already, NATO allies provide 99% of the military support it gets. Soon, the alliance will manage equipment deliveries. But two red lines remain: no NATO membership until the war is over, and no NATO boots on the ground there.

At their last summit, NATO leaders agreed to fast-track Ukraine’s membership process — although the country is unlikely to join for many years — and set up a high-level body for emergency consultations. Several countries promised more military equipment.

      • Maalus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        7 days ago

        The war started with the annexation of Crimea. It has been going on since 2014.

        • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.todayEnglish
          25·
          7 days ago

          This is purely semantics, but neither side had launched a full scale invasion in the years following the annexation until 2022.

          • Maalus@lemmy.worldEnglish
            51·
            7 days ago

            Russia launched an invasion in 2014 that took Crimea and created two “independent” “republics” that are backed by Russia and are fighting Ukraine still. Stop spreading misinformation about the conflict.

          • Gsus4@programming.devEnglish
            11·
            6 days ago

            Read the Nemtsov report https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putin._War

            On August 15, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed DPR, stated that a reinforcement that came from Russia played a decisive role in the counter-offensive: “(There were) 150 units of combat armor, including about 30 tanks - the rest were AIFVs (Armored Infantry Fighting Vehicles) and APCs (Armored Personnel Carriers), and also 1,200 personnel who had undergone training during four months in the territory of the Russian Federation.” Zakharchenko emphasized, “They were inserted here at the most critical moment.” The decisive role played by the reinforcements arriving from Russian territory was confirmed in an interview in the newspaper “Zavtra” by the former33 DPR Minister Igor Girkin (aka Strelkov). The shifting of the front and in particular the deployment to Mariupol were achieved, in his words, "largely by vacationers, individual units of the militia which were subordinate to them.” “Vacationers” in Girkin’s terminology are Russian military cadres who come to the territory of Ukraine with weapons in their hands but who are officially “on vacation.”

            Vyacheslav Tetekin, a Russian State Duma deputy and a member of the Committee for Defense, estimated the number of “volunteers” who had taken part and were continuing to take part in combat actions in the Donbass to be 30,000 people. "Some fought a week there, some fought for several months, but according to the information of the authorities of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics themselves, approximately 30,000 volunteers have gone through 4 9 combat," he emphasized. This same deputy submitted for State Duma review a draft law on conferring upon “volunteers” the status of participants 50 in combat with all the relevant benefits.

            This is a sizable invasion too. Smaller, but enough to become a war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Donbas--