U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the confederation remains arsenic committed to Ukraine arsenic ever, and volition proceed to travel arms arsenic agelong arsenic the combat to repel Russian troops continues. | Olivier Matthys/AP Photo
BRUSSELS — Days of Russian rocket strikes against Ukrainian civilian targets correspond the “malice and cruelty of Putin’s warfare of choice” successful Ukraine, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said during the opening of a league of NATO ministers successful Brussels connected Wednesday.
The gathering is the latest successful a bid of monthly get-togethers of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a postulation of 50 nations committed to arming and supplying Ukrainian forces. The Russian rocket strikes person led to a rethinking of immoderate of that aid, pushing aerial defence to the apical of the Ukrainian privation list.
Flanked by Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov and Chair of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley against a backdrop of Ukrainian and American flags, Austin said the confederation remains arsenic committed to Ukraine arsenic ever, and volition proceed to travel arms arsenic agelong arsenic the combat to repel Russian troops continues.
“Countries astir the satellite person rejected the grim imaginativeness of a satellite wherever large powers tin trample borders by force,” Austin said, adding, “our enactment for Ukraine’s close to support itself doesn’t hinge connected the result of immoderate peculiar battle. Our resoluteness to enactment Ukraine’s defenders extends done each seasons.”
The coming wintertime months could beryllium a trial of Western resoluteness successful Ukraine, arsenic the warring volition apt bog down successful the mud and acold upwind crossed Ukraine. But Austin pledged not to suffer focus, adding “we are progressively posturing ourselves to enactment Ukraine’s defence needs for the challenging months and years ahead.”
U.S. Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith told reporters Tuesday that the Russian rocket strikes means that the apical Ukrainian precedence is “now shifting again to aerial defense,” and she expects aerial defenses volition signifier the “crux of the conversation” during the interaction radical meeting.
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