Before the start of the war by Russia, the Ukrainian defenses consisted almost entirely of outdated equipment. NATO is now working on a 10-year plan to rebuild Ukraine’s defense industry.
The goal: to bring Ukraine’s military equipment up to NATO level. The first NATO-Ukraine meeting in this regard is scheduled for next week.
Ukraine must “become interoperable with NATO”.
“We will address defense planning requirements to make Ukraine fully interoperable with NATO,” a senior NATO official told Politico. This will allow the different systems and technologies of NATO and Ukraine to work together.
He says, “It’s about switching from Soviet equipment to NATO-compatible Western equipment.” Because Ukraine “needs to get away from the Soviet equipment”.
The long-term plan now isn’t about supplying arms to Ukraine – it goes beyond that. Shipments of weapons from the West continue. But the envisaged ten-year plan aims to equate Ukraine militarily with a NATO country.
Also responsible is the “Ukraine Defense Contact Group”, a group of 50 countries committed to arming and supplying Ukrainian soldiers. On Wednesday they met in Brussels for the sixth session.
NATO promises
The West’s renewed efforts to provide military support to Ukraine are in direct response to Russia’s missile strikes on civilian targets in recent days.
For example, the US will send air defense to Ukraine. The goal remains to drive Russia out of Ukraine. “We’ll do as much as we can for as long as we can, and we’ll do as much as we need to for as long as we need to,” US chief general Mark Milley, 64, said after the meeting. (EU)