Vitaly Saenko19:28, 11.10.23

According to him, about 50 more countries of the contact group have pledged to allocate more than $33 billion in direct security assistance to Ukraine.

United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin reported on the effectiveness of the Ramstein-16 meeting .

According to an UNIAN correspondent, Austin said this at a briefing after a meeting of the Contact Group on Defense of Ukraine (Ramstein-16), which took place at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

“As Ukrainian forces face a pivotal moment on the battlefield, we must ensure that essential U.S. assistance to Ukraine continues to flow uninterrupted,” Austin said.

He noted that since Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the United States has pledged $43.9 billion to support Ukraine. This includes the latest US aid of $200 million.

In addition, Austin said, he told his colleagues at the Ramstein meeting that there was still bipartisan support for Ukraine in the US Congress.

“Democracy takes time to work things out. And they know these things have to work themselves out,” Austin said.

He also informed all meeting participants that there is broad support for Ukraine among American society.

“In terms of our ability to continue to support both the efforts in Ukraine and Israel, absolutely, we can do it at the same time, and we will do it together. We are the strongest nation in the world. We will do what is necessary to help our allies “and partners,” Austin said.

According to him, about 50 more countries of the contact group have pledged to allocate more than $33 billion in direct security assistance to Ukraine.

“In fact, Ukraine’s three largest European donors – Germany, Britain and Poland – have all pledged more than the United States as a percentage of GDP,” Austin said.

He also said that many other European countries have pledged significant assistance to Ukraine, including Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and all three Baltic countries.

“Together, several countries have informed us of new security assistance packages for Ukraine, which they approved three weeks after our previous Ramstein meeting,” Austin said.

In particular, Germany will transfer to Ukraine another Patirot air defense system and additional missiles for this system. The assistance will be part of a $1.1 billion aid package that will also include 10 more Leopard 1 tanks and two IRIS-T air defense systems.

In addition, Spain will continue to carry out the important mission of training the Ukrainian military in the operation of HAWK anti-aircraft missile systems and will provide additional HAWK equipment.

Also, according to Austin, Sweden has approved a new aid package for Ukraine worth $200 million, including the provision of critical munitions for air defense.

At the same time, Bulgaria will transfer components to Ukraine to help strengthen the S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems. France intends to transfer more howitzers to Caesar and speed up their production.

In addition, the UK will provide a new assistance package, which will include support for air defense, 155mm guns and more.

Canada will invest nearly half a billion dollars over the next three years to develop Ukraine’s armored vehicles.

(C)UNIAN 2023