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NATO Ministers Mull Ways To Provide 'Reliable, Predictable' Support For Ukraine
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg speaks to reporters ahead of a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on April 3 (Estonian Foreign Ministry)
Updated April 03, 2024
By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kubela was in Brussels on April 3 as NATO foreign ministers discussed a proposal to stabilize military support for his country by creating a 100 billion-euro ($107 billion), five -year fund that would give the alliance a strong role in the provision of critical military aid.
“We must ensure reliable and predictable security assistance to Ukraine for the long haul so that we rely less on voluntary contributions and more on NATO commitments, less on short-term offers and more on multi-year pledges,” NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg said as the two-day meeting got under way.
“It is obvious that we need new and bigger money for Ukraine for many years to come,” he added.
No final decisions about the fund are expected until a NATO summit in July in Washington.
The U.S. news website Politico reported on April 2 that U.S. and Western officials were discussing moving the Ukraine Defense Contact Group -- also known as the Ramstein Format, under NATO auspices to maintain support for Ukraine if presumed Republican Party candidate Donald Trump wins the U.S. presidential election in November. Trump has been critical of additional aid to Ukraine and of NATO.
The Ramstein Format was created by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin shortly after the February 2022 full-scale invasion and has been credited with facilitating tens of billions of dollars in critical military and other aid to Ukraine.
The previous day, Kuleba was in The Hague for an international conference titled Restoring Justice For Ukraine. Kuleba announced the opening of an online Register of Damages, urging Ukrainians to “request compensation for damages or destruction of residential property” incurred during Russia’s full-scale invasion since February 2022.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Kuleba wrote that in addressing the conference he “emphasized that Ukrainians need justice right now. Not in a distant future.”
In a concluding statement at the Restoring Justice For Ukraine conference, representatives of 44 countries condemned “acts of aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine” and confirmed their commitment to the creation of “a special tribunal for the investigation and prosecution of the crime of aggression against Ukraine.”
The statement said Russia must face all “the legal consequences of all its internationally wrongful acts…including making reparation for the injury and for any damage caused by such acts.”
In a social media post, Dutch Foreign Minister Hanke Bruins Slot, who hosted the conference, praised the new register, saying it was “tangible progress…to achieve accountability and compensation.” Copyright © Apr 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 conncwsecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. http://www.rferl.org
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