Support for Ukraine remains at the forefront of the world’s new crises, NATO chief said
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The Secretary-General of NATO Mark Rutte said that the members of the alliance agreed that they will find ways to continue supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia since the ongoing conflict in the Middle East has some countries in that region seeking European help to strengthen their weapons, especially with air defense weapons.
When asked in an interview with Reuters on Thursday how European aid would be possible as support for Ukraine’s air defense is already limited, Rutte said the industry would have to ramp up production of these weapons, just as it has done in recent years with ammunition.
“We have to replicate what we’re doing with letters when it comes to other big-ticket items,” he said.
Less than a week after the US and Israel began attacking Iran, the conflict has reached European borders, most notably when NATO member Turkey said the alliance’s air defenses were used on Wednesday to destroy an Iranian ballistic missile as it headed toward Turkish territory.
Also, a drone made in Iran on Monday targeted a British airbase in Cyprus, which is a European Union country although it is not a NATO member. The United Kingdom and several other NATO countries have been discussing sending naval assets to protect Cyprus.
Rutte said that in talks with leaders from Europe and Canada in recent days, he “heard and sensed” the desire “to make sure that as allies we allow what the Americans are doing in the Middle East and in Iran … and at the same time we make sure that Ukraine has what it needs to stay strong in a strong struggle like the agreement that is going on now.”
Ukrainian drone expertise sought
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday he had spoken with the leaders of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait about possible cooperation, as many countries have raised aviation concerns since Iran shot down drones and missiles in the past six days.
Ukrainian manufacturers have developed low-cost interceptor drones designed to hunt down and destroy Iran’s Shahed drones, and the industry is producing in excess capacity.
“It’s better to do that with anti-drone technology than with expensive interceptors,” Rutte said, praising Ukraine for “stepping up.”
Rutte, the former prime minister of the Netherlands, also told Reuters that “Ukrainians lost more in Russia months, months out, times more than the Russians lost in Afghanistan in the 1980s.”
Ukraine gained more land in February than it lost for the first time since 2023, according to Finland-based analyst group Black Bird Group.
As the war in the Middle East and Ukraine threatens the stability of NATO, Sweden’s deputy defense minister Johan Berggren tells Energy and Politics about his country’s vision of ‘total defense’, which encourages citizens to prepare for war and crisis.
The escalating crisis in the Middle East may lead to the postponement of trilateral talks with Russia, Zelenskyy said on Thursday, and a change of venue.
New talks to end the four-year war were held between March 5 and March 9 in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
“We talked to the American side, as it is the party that invited Ukraine and Russia to the meeting, about the possibility of changing the location and temporarily postponing the meeting due to the war in the Middle East,” Zelenskyy said in the X post.
The Ukrainian president also criticized Moscow’s demand that Ukraine withdraw from the remaining 20 percent of its eastern Donetsk region. Russia has said that Ukraine needs to relinquish control over the industrial region, which Russia has failed to fully conquer. Kyiv refused to do so.
Ukraine has returned 200 prisoners of war in its latest exchange with Russia, including soldiers captured during Moscow’s siege of Mariupol in early 2022, Zelenskyy also said on Thursday.
Russian news agency Interfax, citing the Russian Defense Ministry, also reported an exchange of 200 people each.
Power supply threats
Meanwhile, the war has fueled tensions over electricity supplies.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday that they will meet soon to discuss stopping gas exports to Europe. He linked the possible decision – which he said has not yet been taken – to the European Union’s desire to block the purchase of Russian gas and liquefied natural gas.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has accused Ukraine of an ‘oil embargo’ against his country by delaying the reopening of a key Russian oil supply pipeline – the Soviet-era Druzbha pipeline. CBC’s Briar Stewart breaks down the hostile atmosphere.
Russian gas sales to Europe have fallen sharply since 2022 due to sanctions related to the war in Ukraine. But Russia still supplies LNG to the European Union, and still sells gas through the Black Sea TurkStream pipeline to countries including Hungary, Slovakia and non-EU Serbia.
President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia could stop buying goods at the moment amid rising energy prices caused by the Iran crisis.
