After making military pledges to Ukraine, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg considered that “it is not too late for Ukraine to prevail” over Russia, as long as its allies fulfill their pledges and supply it with more weapons.
“In recent months, NATO allies have not provided the support they pledged,” he added in a speech during a visit to Berlin on Thursday.
He also continued, “But it is not too late for Ukraine to prevail, because more support is on the way.”
Ukraine has suffered setbacks on the battlefield against Russian forces due to a shortage of ammunition and weapons.
Billions of dollars
But Stoltenberg pointed out that the US Congress recently approved a draft law to provide billions of dollars to support Ukraine, and other countries, including Britain, Germany and the Netherlands, also made new pledges.
He stressed, “Our responsibility now is to transform these commitments into real shipments of weapons and ammunition, and to do so quickly.”
Stoltenberg also criticized China, which he accused of “supporting the Russian war economy” by exchanging advanced technology with Moscow that can be used to produce missiles, tanks and aircraft.
He added, “China says it wants good relations with the West. At the same time, Beijing continues to fuel the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II,” warning of this discrepancy.
Artillery ammunition in Ukraine (Reuters)
Berlin and Beijing
Berlin and Beijing traditionally enjoy close economic relations, with German companies investing huge sums in China and exporting goods in large quantities to the world’s second-largest economy.
But after the shock of energy resources to the German economy and the privatization of the industrial sector due to the war in Ukraine, pressure increased on German companies to reduce their dependence on China.
On a visit to Beijing last week, Chancellor Olaf Scholz stressed that Germany does not want to “disengage” from China, but seeks to reduce “unilateral dependency.”
