NATO to give more support for Ukraine

NATA will launch a new program to provide more reliable aid and training to Ukraine and help it get ready to join the alliance.

From left, President Joe Biden, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nauseda attend the first work session as part of the NATO summit, in Vilnius on July 11, 2023. NATO leaders will grapple with Ukraine’s membership ambitions at their summit on July 11, 2023, their determination to face down Russia boosted by a breakthrough in Sweden’s bid to join the alliance. Photo by Jacques Witt/Pool/AFP/Getty Images/TNS

by Associated Press

Published: July 11, 2024

NATA will launch a new program to provide more reliable aid and training to Ukraine and help it get ready to join the alliance.

WASHINGTON (AP) — NATO has agreed to launch a new program to provide reliable military aid and training to Ukraine and help it get ready to join the alliance.

The plan will supplement, but not replace, the two-year-old Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which was created by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after Russia launched its February 2022 invasion into Ukraine. That group, with more than 50 nations from Europe and around the world, coordinates the delivery of much-needed weapons and training to Ukraine.

But the failure of the U.S. Congress to fund any weapons for months due to partisan gridlock late last year and early this year, as well as similar lags in European Union funds, underscored how vulnerable that effort was to the vagaries of politics.

Already a subscriber?