“GRINDING WAR OF ATTRITION”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said alliance members were increasing production of 155mm artillery rounds and needed to ramp that up even further to help Ukraine. It was “obvious” NATO states had to spend more on defence, he added.
“So yes, things are happening but we need to continue, we need to step up even more. This is now becoming a grinding war of attrition and (this) is a war of logistics,” he told reporters after a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged countries to join Germany in sending “as many tanks as possible, and as quickly as possible” to Ukraine after media reports that Denmark and the Netherlands said they would not deliver Leopard 2 battle tanks like Berlin.
“It would be very disappointing if, after so long of pointing the finger at Germany for not doing anything, these countries now don’t follow suit,” Borrell told Germany’s Phoenix broadcaster.
“I know there are hundreds of tanks in EU armies, some of them need to be refurbished, but then you have to do it, and do it quickly, because in the spring it will be too late.”
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said after the Brussels talks that Ukraine had a very good chance of taking and “exploiting” the initiative on the battlefield this year.
Austin said that for every new system NATO provides Kyiv, it will train troops on it. “We’re laser-focused on making sure that we provide a capability and not just the platform.”
Britain said it and other European nations would provide military equipment including spare parts for tanks and artillery ammunition to Ukraine via an international fund, with an initial package worth more than US$241 million.
On Jan 20, a senior US administration official said Washington was advising Ukraine to hold off with a major offensive until the latest supply of US weaponry is in place and training has been provided.
Russia calls the invasion a “special military operation” against security threats, saying NATO shows hostility to Russia daily and is growing more involved in the conflict. Kyiv and its allies call Russia’s actions an unprovoked land grab.
Russia holds tracts of Ukraine’s southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, including its nuclear plant, nearly all of Luhansk and over half of Donetsk. Last year, Russia declared it had annexed the four regions in a move condemned by most United Nations members as illegal.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
