Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, addresses media during the two day defense ministers summit in Brussels, Belgium. (NATO)
BELFAST — NATO will review ammunition stockpile targets in a bid to increase capacities across international production facilities, as the alliance looks to urgently step up arms supplies to Ukraine so the Eastern European country can mount a spring offensive against Russia.
The move was announced Wednesday by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during a two day defense ministers summit in Brussels, which also saw the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Denmark agree on the first International Fund for Ukraine (IFU) equipment package. Under the agreement, $240 million in funding will see tank spares, uncrewed air systems, electronic warfare, and air defense items transferred to Kyiv.
NATO members also agreed on a new ammunition warehousing initiative aimed at supporting the pre-positioning of ammunition, while defense ministers also started discussions on increasing defense spending above the decade-old two percent GDP target. However, any change to that target will only be announced in July at NATO’s Head of States Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, said Stoltenberg.
He noted that 2022 was the eighth consecutive year defense spending had increased across the alliance with “an additional $350 billion” over the year itself. “This trend is expected to continue this year, but more needs to be done,” Stoltenberg added.
RELATED: Spurred by Ukraine war, 18 Western countries plan to share remote sensing data
The US, for its part, is focused on providing “additional capabilities” to Ukraine, said US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin during the defense ministers meeting, so that Kyiv can be “decisive on the battlefield” when prosecuting a forthcoming offensive.
“We’re laser focused on making sure that we provide a capability and not just platforms,” said Austin. “For every system that we provide, we’re going to train troops on that system, we’re also going to give them [Ukrainian troops] additional training on maneuver, on the integration of fires, on sustainment and on maintenance.
“So with that additional capability, better trained troops, platforms that can perform a lot better in this environment, they’ll have a real good chance of making a pretty significant difference on the battlefield.”
Austin’s comments come just days after a Biden administration official told the Washington Post that Ukrainian leaders had been made aware that Washington “can’t do anything and everything forever,” in terms of leveraging military resources and amid growing dissent in Congress about long-term support for the war effort.
RELATED: 11 countries to give tanks to Ukraine, as Kyiv is ‘contemplating’ spring offensive: US
Stoltenberg warned that Russia is “launching new offensives” without disclosing details, as it continues a six month campaign to capture the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Austin added that “large numbers” of “ill trained and ill equipped” Russian recruits are continuing to be sent to the frontline.
Elsewhere, NATO also announced in a statement that Denmark and Sweden have joined the alliance’s European Sky Shield Initiative designed to support multinational integrated air and missile defense. A total of 17 participants are now registered with the program, which is led by Germany.
Despite Ukraine urging equipment supply partners to gift fighter jets, neither Stoltenberg nor Austin mentioned the issue, aside from a Tuesday dodge by Austin where he flatly stated he would not be making any announcement on the subject.
