Meeting in Germany, Kiev's allies "more united" than ever

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at the Ramstein base, April 21, 2023. AP - Matthias Schrader

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At the US military base of Ramstein in the Palatinate, the members of the "contact group for the defense of Ukraine" met this Friday to consider the continuation of their military support, at a time when President Zelensky is demanding the delivery of fighter jets, as he recalled on the occasion of the surprise visit to Ukraine of the Secretary-General of NATO.

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For this eleventh meeting of the "contact group", Lloyd Austin, the US Secretary of Defense, estimated that the Ramstein group has provided more than $ 55 billion of purely military equipment to Ukraine, an amount multiplied by ten since the first.

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After more than a year of aggression and deceit on the part of Russia, this contact group is more united than ever and more global than ever, he said at the opening of this meeting intended to coordinate military aid to Kiev, which says it is preparing a counter-offensive of magnitude. And our support for the forces of freedom in Ukraine remains strong and unwavering. Ukraine urgently needs our help to protect its citizens, infrastructure and forces from the threat of Russian missiles. Together, we will ensure that Ukraine has what it needs to live free. Together, we will defend the rules-based international order that keeps us all safe. And together, we will support Ukraine for as long as it takes.

Drop-in deliveries

Organized at the US base in Ramstein, southern Germany, by Lloyd Austin, the meeting also took place in the presence of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who had just returned from Kiev, where he reaffirmed that "Ukraine's future lies in the Euro-Atlantic family" and said that NATO must "make sure that Ukraine wins".

According to Lloyd Austin, air defense needs to be further strengthened after the delivery of Patriot missiles by the United States, Germany and the Netherlands, Mamba by France and Italy and Nasams by Norway and Canada.

Poles and Slovaks have delivered Soviet MiG-29s to Ukraine and Denmark wants to consider the delivery of Western aircraft as demanded by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

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Read on on the same topics:

• Ukraine
• Russia
• Defense
• NATO
• European Union