BUCHAREST, November 29. /TASS/. The damage caused by the Russian airstrikes to Ukraine is colossal, and NATO intends to mobilize further support for the East European country, the bloc’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in his doorstep statement ahead of NATO Foreign Affairs Ministers meeting in Romania’s Bucharest.
"We need to realize that there are enormous effects of the attacks," Stoltenberg said. According to him, despite the work of the Ukrainian air defense systems, "these attacks have caused significant damage". "I think we all have seen these pictures taken from satellites, where you see Europe in light, and then you see Ukraine dark, and that reflects the enormous consequences. So there's a huge task to rebuild all of this," Stoltenberg said.
"One of the important reasons why this meeting today [in Bucharest] is so important and timely, is that this provides us with the platform to mobilize further support to step up even more, and also for [Ukrainian Foreign] Minister Kuleba to meet all his colleagues in NATO and then to address those urgent needs. And I'm confident that Minister Kuleba will raise also the need for stepping up further when it comes to rebuilding their power infrastructure," the Secretary General stressed.
More air defense systems
NATO considers sending Ukraine new air defense systems, ammunition and repairing the systems that have already been given to the country.
"Here in Bucharest, at the foreign ministerial meeting, the message from all Allies will be that we need to do more. Both to help Ukraine repair the destroyed critical infrastructure, including the power and gas grid, but also, to of course address the attacks itself, by providing more air defense systems," Stoltenberg said, "This is partly providing more air defense weapons systems, but also of course to ensuring that those systems that we have already provided - and many of them are actually a modern, NATO standard air defense system, including NASAMS and others, that they are functioning. Meaning that we need to provide spare parts and we need to provide ammunition."
More refugees
Stoltenberg also warned that Europe must be ready for a new migrant flow. "We have seen millions of people being forced to flee Ukraine already. Many of them have crossed the border into Romania, close to 3 million. <…> And of course, we have to be prepared for more refugees crossing into the rest of Europe. This is a war. This is a brutal war," he said.
The informal meeting of NATO’s top diplomats takes place in Bucharest on November 29-30. Its main goals are discussing the situation in Ukraine, Finland’s and Sweden’s accession to the US-led military bloc, and increasing NATO military potential.