NATO chief scolds alliance countries for not being quicker to help Ukraine

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kyiv, Ukraine — NATO countries have not delivered on time on what they promised Ukraine, the alliance’s head said Monday, as Russia races to exploit its battlefield advantages before Kiev’s depleted forces obtain more Western military supplies in the war that has lasted more than two years.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said “serious delays in support have meant serious battlefield consequences” for Ukraine.

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“NATO allies have not delivered on what they promised,” Stoltenberg said at a news conference in kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, referring to U.S. and European delays in shipping weapons and ammunition.

“The lack of ammunition has allowed the Russians to advance along the front line. The lack of air defense has made it possible for more Russian missiles to hit their targets, and the lack of deep strike capabilities has made it possible for the Russians to concentrate more forces,” Stoltenberg said.

Ukraine and its Western partners are in a race against time to deploy critical new military aid that can help slow the recent slow and costly but steady Russian advance in eastern areas, as well as thwart drone and missile attacks.

Zelenskyy said new Western supplies have started arriving, but slowly. “This process must be accelerated,” he said.

Although the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line has changed little since the beginning of the war, in recent weeks Kremlin forces have advanced, especially in the Donetsk region, under the weight of their troops and the enormous power of fire used to pound defensive positions. .

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kyiv’s Western partners have repeatedly promised to support Ukraine “for as long as necessary.” But vital US military aid was suspended for six months due to political differences in Washington, and production of military equipment in Europe has been unable to meet demand. Ukraine’s own manufacturing of heavy weapons is only now beginning to gain ground.

Russia is a much larger country than Ukraine and with greater resources to draw on. It has also received weapons support from Iran and North Korea, the US government says.

Prolonged Ukrainian efforts to mobilize more troops and the late construction of battlefield fortifications are other factors currently undermining Ukraine’s war effort, military analysts say.

Stoltenberg said more weapons and ammunition for Ukraine are on the way, including Patriot missile systems to defend against heavy Russian bombing hitting the power grid and urban areas.

That additional help may be needed as Ukrainian officials say Russia is gathering forces for a major summer offensive, even if its troops are making only incremental gains for now.

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“It remains unlikely that Russian forces will achieve deeper operationally significant penetration into the area in the near term,” the Institute for the Study of War said in an assessment late Sunday.

Still, Kremlin forces are closing in on the strategically important hilltop town of Chasiv Yar, the capture of which would be an important step toward the Donetsk region.

Ukrainian troops were forced to make a tactical withdrawal from three villages in that besieged eastern region, the country’s army chief said on Sunday.

Donetsk and Luhansk together form much of the Donbas industrial region, which has been hit by separatist fighting since 2014 and which Putin has set as the main target of the Russian invasion. Russia illegally annexed areas of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions in September 2022.

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