NATO countries haven’t delivered what they promised to Ukraine in time, the alliance’s chief said Monday, allowing Russia to press its battlefield advantage while Kyiv’s depleted forces wait for Western military supplies to arrive.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that “serious delays in support have meant serious consequences on the battlefield” for Ukraine.
“NATO allies have not delivered what they promised,” Stoltenberg said at a news conference in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, referring to delays by the U.S. and Europe in sending weapons and ammunition. Ukraine’s troops were compelled to make a tactical retreat from three villages in the eastern region, where the Kremlin’s forces have been making incremental gains against their weaker opponent, Ukraine’s army chief said Sunday. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed Monday its forces had also taken the village of Semenivka.
“The lack of ammunition has allowed the Russians to push forward along the front line. 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 the clock to deploy critical new military aid that can help check the recent slow and costly but steady Russian advance across eastern areas, as well as thwart drone and missile attacks.
Zelenskyy said new Western supplies have started arriving, but slowly. “This process must be speeded up,” he said. Though the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line has shifted little since early in the war, the Kremlin’s forces have in recent weeks edged forward, especially in the Donetsk region, by sheer weight of numbers and massive firepower used to bludgeon defensive positions.
Kyiv’s Western partners have repeatedly vowed to stand with Ukraine “for as long as it takes.” But vital U.S. military help was held up for six months by political differences in Washington, and Europe’s military hardware production has not been able to keep up with demand. Ukraine’s own manufacturing of heavy weapons is only now starting to gain traction. Russia is a far bigger country than Ukraine, with greater resources to draw on. It has also received weapon support from Iran and North Korea, the U.S. government says. Drawn-out Ukrainian efforts to mobilize more troops, and the belated building of battlefield fortifications are other factors currently undermining Ukraine’s war effort, military analysts say.
