July 14, 2022

NATO Summit: What New Weapons Have Been Pledged to Ukraine?

Source: Voice of America

Journalist: Henry Ridgwell

As NATO leaders met in Madrid this week, Ukraine demanded new heavy weapons to defeat Russia's invasion. Here's a look at what Ukraine says it needs and what other countries have promised and delivered.

Ukrainian demands

Addressing NATO leaders by video link Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he urgently needed more advanced weapons.

"By providing them to us, you can completely break Russia's tactics to destroy cities and terrorize Ukrainian civilians," he said.

Ukraine said it needed a tenfold increase in the supply of weapons to counter Russia's huge arsenal of artillery.

NATO is not supplying heavy weapons to Ukraine, explained Jim Townsend, former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for European and NATO policy.

"That's not NATO itself as an institution providing things. It doesn't have them. But its allies do," Townsend told VOA. "And so, NATO has been very supportive of allies providing that assistance if they can. There's an absorption rate and a training rate that has to be met as well, in terms of timing."

Read the full story and more from Voice of America.

Author

  • Jim Townsend

    Adjunct Senior Fellow, Transatlantic Security Program

    James Joye Townsend Jr. is an adjunct senior fellow in the CNAS Transatlantic Security Program. After eight years as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (DASD) for European ...