The defense minister stressed this Tuesday that it is impossible for Portugal to make more weapons available to Ukraine, despite the NATO Secretary General’s call on Monday, because it is necessary to balance aid to Kiev with the Portuguese capabilities.
Asked about the call that Jens Stoltenberg made on Monday for member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to send more weapons to Kiev, Helena Carreiras agreed with the secretary-general, but defended “the balance”: “We help Ukraine , we help it with the material we can make available at all times, seeking a balance between that help and preserving our abilities.
Speaking to journalists at NATO headquarters in Brussels (NATO), Helena Carreiras added that Portugal’s aid is not only visible in the donation of equipment, for example the Leopard 02 combat vehicles, as there is “an articulated , including training , maintenance and support of these resources”.
At the same time, member states helping Ukraine’s armed forces should “think about war reserves, munitions, industrial development,” in line with what Stoltenberg had said Monday, when he urged countries that are members of the military alliance to increase munitions production.
Portugal maintains “end of March” as the deadline for delivery of the Leopard 02 and is working with Germany to place them on Ukrainian territory by then and in time for the foreseeable major Moscow offensive, scheduled for early spring.
Already last Friday, at the end of an extraordinary European Council summit, Prime Minister António Costa acknowledged that sending fighter jets to Ukraine – in response to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s call – was not a “red line”, but Portugal was. unable to do so as the available aircraft are all captured.
Source: DN
