NATO ministers pledge to maintain support for Ukraine

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and top Western diplomats vowed Wednesday to continue supporting Ukraine and its bid to join NATO despite dwindling military supplies and competing crises.

Mr Blinken’s comments came at the end of a NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels, where he and other Western diplomats sought to dispel doubts about the West’s determination to help Kiev amid Russia’s full-scale invasion. A White House proposal to send additional emergency aid to Ukraine has stalled in the Republican-led House, and the war in Gaza has consumed global attention.

“Some wonder whether the United States and other NATO allies should continue to support Ukraine as we enter the second winter of Putin’s brutality,” Mr. Blinken said at a news conference in Brussels, referring to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. “But the answer here today at NATO is clear and unwavering. We must and will continue to ensure that Russia’s war of aggression remains a strategic failure.”

He added that he expected President Biden’s request for $61.4 billion in additional military and economic aid for Ukraine to be approved by Congress.

“What I continue to see, what I continue to hear, is strong bipartisan support in both houses of Congress for Ukraine,” Mr. Blinken said.

In a nod to growing complaints among Republicans that the United States is spending too much on Ukraine, Mr. Blinken echoed recent comments from other American and European officials in noting that Washington is not providing the bulk of the aid currently going to Kiev go. The United States has given about $77 billion to Ukraine, compared with more than $110 billion from European allies in the same period, he said.

In addition to pledging sustained support, diplomats in Brussels worked to pave the way for Ukraine’s eventual membership in NATO – which the alliance promised this year. Kiev is not expected to be able to join NATO during the war, to prevent the alliance from coming into direct conflict with Russia.

This week, diplomats drew up a list of reforms Kiev must embrace before it gains full membership. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday that some reforms were already underway, but did not indicate when they should be completed. For years, the United States and European allies have demanded that Ukraine crack down on government corruption and strengthen human rights.

Mr Stoltenberg said Ukraine should also modernize its military to NATO standards – the billions of dollars in weapons and training from Western allies since the start of the war have already helped – fight terrorism and upgrade its intelligence systems.

“I am actually impressed by Ukraine’s commitment to reform, to modernize their society in the midst of a large-scale war,” Mr. Stoltenberg said. “It helps them to be a stronger country that fights Russia as an aggressor.”

But the effort to reassure Ukraine at this week’s NATO and European Union meetings in Brussels seemed “heavy on promises and light on strategy,” said Michael John Williams, a European policy expert at Syracuse University and the Atlantic Council .

“The EU is not suffering from Ukraine’s fatigue, but it lacks a concrete long-term plan,” Mr Williams said. “Putin has put Russia on the verge of industrial war, and he thinks he can wait out Brussels and Washington.”