Fourteen years after the Summit of Heads of State and Government formally declared Ukraine and Georgia to be members of the future alliance in Bucharest, the Allied foreign ministers have gathered in the Romanian capital with their eyes on the close and inhospitable Ukrainian border. Russian invasion of this country. Allied representatives meet again in the same place, the giant Palace of Parliament, where Vladimir Putin personallySince April 2008 he has been invited to Bucharest, and has said that opening NATO’s doors to Ukraine is a “direct threat” to Russia’s security.
The memory of that meeting was inevitable given the situation in that part of Europe at present. Months after this statement, Russia invaded parts of Georgiain 2014, captured Crimea and last February ruthlessly attacked the rest of Ukraine, whose ambition to join NATO is stronger than ever.
Ukraine’s accession to NATO is not on the agenda at the moment, but after what happened, no one doubts that it will be a reality after the war. For the time being, all the public pronouncements of Allied officials confirm that military and economic support for the West is guaranteed. In addition, two countries that have historically been reluctant to join the coalition, Sweden and Finland, are already participating in this meeting despite the fact that their accession process has not yet been formally completed. The only person who has not changed is Putin himself, entrenched behind the Kremlin walls and by all indications preparing for an unprecedented bombing campaign against civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.
Kuleba is invited to the summit
That is why the Ukrainian minister said, Dimitro KolebaInvited to Bucharest, he called on NATO countries to speed up arms shipments and help restore the power grid “faster, faster, faster”. “When we have transformers and generators, we will be able to restore our electrical system and when we have air defense systems, we will be able to protect the infrastructure from the next wave of Russian missiles,” Kuleba said. That is, the most urgent needs are anti-aircraft missiles and transformers.
Secretary General of NATO, Jens StoltenbergHe replied that he hoped the ministers would uphold “the message that we must do more. Both to help Ukraine repair damaged critical infrastructure, including the electricity and gas grid, but also, of course, to counter attacks with more air defense systems and to make sure that the systems that we’ve already provided, many of which are in fact modern. NATO’s standard air defense system is used, including NASAMS and others.
Help from allies
The Allies have already supplied Ukraine with so many billions of euros in weapons and equipment that the strategic reserves of many European armies are virtually exhausted. Ukraine is asking for more resources, in addition to air defense, including long-range missiles, something that all capitals are currently reluctant to assume, as they can be used to strike targets inside Russian territory, which would be a quantum leap. In a conflict whose consequences will be unpredictable.
Stoltenberg also said that according to the data available to the alliance, “we know that Russia is running out of ammunition. This is also why they are reaching out, for example, to Iran to try to get more supplies. We say very clearly that no country should support Russia’s illegal war.” Thus, Iran and any other country should provide Russia with missiles, drones, or anything else that can help it continue this brutal war of aggression against Ukraine.”
