Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that Wednesday’s meeting of the Ukraine Support Contact Group, which discussed the supply of air defense systems to Ukraine, was “quite productive”.
“The bolder and more brutal Russian terror becomes, the clearer it is to the world that helping Ukraine to protect the air is one of the most important humanitarian tasks for Europe in our time.”underlined the Ukrainian head of state in his usual daily nightly speech on social media.
The United States and 50 countries in the contact group for support for Ukraine spoke out on Wednesday to increase production of their defense industries so that Kiev can continue to fight the Russian invasion and ensure its security.
“We are putting pressure on to strengthen our industrial base” with the aim of “increasing production power” to defend Ukraine, while “we meet our own security needs”US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at a news conference at the end of the group meeting he chaired.
Zelensky assured Ukraine is up to the task, thanking allies “who have already taken the decision to strengthen this support (…) for the effective defense of the air”.
Both the contact group meeting and the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) defense ministers’ meeting, which began with dinner this Wednesday evening and will continue on Thursday, were scheduled to address the issue of replenishment of arms and weapons stocks. ammunition that countries are running out of.
Atlantic Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who also attended the group’s meeting, expressed confidence that allies will review inventory guidelines and step up defense industry efforts to “meet the long-term demand it needs to invest more in production capacity”.
The countries of the contact group are also exploring the possibility of providing Ukraine with short-range and long-range air defense systems, with the aim of “rebuild and maintain an integrated air defense and missile defense system”said US Armed Forces Chief of Staff Mark Milley.
Allied sources pointed out that in the Russian missile strike on several Ukrainian cities on Monday, more than half of them were intercepted by Ukrainian defense forces.
This contact group, an initiative of the United States, met for the first time last April at the American airbase Ramstein, in southwestern Germany.
The military offensive launched by Russia in Ukraine on Feb. 24 has already resulted in more than 13 million people fleeing — more than six million internally displaced persons and more than 7.6 million to European countries — according to the most recent UN data, which rank this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945).
The Russian invasion – justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security – was condemned by the generality of the international community, which has responded by sending arms to Ukraine and Russia of political and economic sanctions.
As confirmed since the start of the war, which entered its 231st day this Wednesday, the UN presented 6,221 civilian deaths and 9,371 injured, stressing that these numbers are far below the real one.
Source: DN
