The meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council with the participation of President Volodymyr Zelensky will take place this Friday, April 19.
This was reported by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
"First of all, President Zelensky asked to hold a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council. We will convene a meeting on Friday. It will be a meeting with President Zelensky, and then with the ministers of defense to discuss the urgent need for greater support for Ukraine," Stoltenberg said.
The priority issues of the meeting will be the strengthening of Ukraineʼs anti-aircraft defense and the supply of artillery ammunition.
- The authorities of Ukraine have been calling on allies for several weeks in a row to help with air defense systems and ammunition for them. There was a shortage in the troops, due to which Russian missile and drone attacks began to penetrate the defenses.
- On April 13, Germany announced that it would transfer to Ukraine another Patriot launcher and ammunition for existing air defense systems.
- On April 16, President Zelensky spoke about a significant shortage of anti-aircraft defense and the corresponding missiles. As an example, he cited the missile attack on the Trypilska TPP. It was attacked by 11 missiles, Ukraine was able to destroy seven of them, and four hit the target simply because the anti-aircraft defense ran out of missiles. He announced that Kyiv would request the convening of a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council.
- The EU special summit on April 17-18 will also discuss the strengthening of Ukraineʼs air defense. The Chairman of the European Council Charles Michel, in an official invitation, called on the heads of states and governments to urgently activate military aid. The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky will also join the summit via video link. As DW writes, it is expected that the provision of the Patriot air defense system will be discussed both on the sidelines and at the meeting itself.
- On April 17, it became known that the German government began to look for available air defense systems from allies in order to supply them to Ukraine as soon as possible. Foreign Minister Burbok and Defense Minister Pistorius contacted NATO and EU partners, as well as approached third countries, but did not reveal which ones.