Foreign Secretary urges Western allies to collectively increase weapons production in order to help Kyiv towards victory

By Joe Barnes, BRUSSELS CORRESPONDENT

29 November 2023 • 8:00pm

Nato can outlast Russia in Ukraine, David Cameron told allies on Wednesday, saying its combined economic might was 30 times greater than Moscow’s.

Addressing his first Nato meeting as Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron called on member states to harness their collective advantage to deliver Kyiv enough weapons to defeat Vladimir Putin’s forces.

The meeting in Brussels came amid concerns in Ukraine over dwindling Western support while the conflict in Gaza continues.

However, Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of Nato, urged allies not to “underestimate Russia”.

He warned that Moscow had placed its economy on a war footing, amassed a large stockpile of missiles ahead of winter and had the manpower to overcome Ukraine’s defences.

Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, insisted his country would not “back down” in its fight, but urged Kyiv’s Western allies to be as “resilient” in their support as Ukrainians have been in their battle.

‘I’ll be building consensus’

As Nato foreign ministers met in the Belgian capital, there were fears that a lack of military aid could force Kyiv into premature peace negotiations from a position of weakness.

Western officials insist they remain committed, despite the distraction of the war between Israel and Hamas, and are not pushing Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, into a territorial compromise.

But arriving at the meeting, Lord Cameron suggested there was still work to do on securing the full backing of Nato’s 31 member states.

“Two weeks ago I was in Ukraine saying we need to do everything we could to help the Ukrainians repel this appalling aggression by Putin,” the Foreign Secretary told reporters.

“I’ll be building consensus for that view here at Nato.”

The Telegraph understands Lord Cameron told a private session that Nato allies must use their combined economic might to ramp up weapon production in order to outlast Russia.

He said allies should seek to sign more multi-year, multi-country deals to convince arms manufacturers to increase production to meet Ukraine’s demands for at least the next two years.

Mr Kuleba said the task would require Ukraine and Nato’s defence industries to gear themselves towards ensuring Kyiv continues to receive the supplies it needs to defeat Russia.

British manufacturer BAE Systems and 20 French defence firms have already opened operations in Ukraine with a view to eventually starting production there.

“We need to create a Euro-Atlantic common area of defence industries,” said the Ukrainian foreign minister, adding that the EU’s own effort to send one million 155mm artillery shells by next March had only delivered 300,000 to date.

Blinken tackles US aid question

Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, also sought to tackle claims that Washington’s support could soon dry up as hardline Republicans in Congress continue to stall a $60 billion (£47.2 million) aid package for Kyiv.

“Some are questioning whether the United States and other Nato allies in truth continue to stand with Ukraine as we enter the second winter of Putin’s brutality,” Mr Blinken said.

“But the answer here today at Nato is clear and it’s unwavering. We must and we will continue to support Ukraine.”

Meanwhile, a senior US State Department official said Putin would not consider peace talks until after the upcoming US presidential election next November, which is likely to pit Donald Trump against Joe Biden in a rerun of the 2020 vote.

“My expectation is that Putin won’t make a peace or a meaningful peace before he sees the result of our election,” said the official, who said it was a “widely shared premise”.

“That was the context in which the allies all expressed strong support for Ukraine”

Nato allies vowed to “remain steadfast in their commitment to further step up political and practical support to Ukraine” in a joint statement issued after Wednesday’s meeting.

Separately on Wednesday, reports claimed barriers erected by Russia to protect the Crimean bridge from Ukrainian attacks had reportedly been washed away by a “storm of the century” that battered the Black Sea region.

The booms deployed to protect the road and rail crossing from Ukrainian seaborne drones have likely been washed away in the storm, an open source researcher reported.

The Crimean bridge, also known as the Kerch Bridge, connects the Russian mainland to the occupied peninsula which Moscow annexed in 2014.

Pens that once held Russia’s specially-trained dolphins deployed to protect the Black Sea naval fleet and Crimea had also likely been washed away in the storm, MT Anderson, a second open source researcher, reported.

It emerged last week that Moscow and Beijing have discussed building an “underwater tunnel” connecting mainland Russia and occupied Crimea amid mounting Russian fears that the Kerch Bridge, which has been successfully struck twice by Ukraine, remains vulnerable.

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ALSO:

Democrats consider new immigration rules to secure fresh Ukraine funding.

Senate Republicans make border control demands a potential condition of their support for Joe Biden’s $106bn military aid request.

By Rozina Sabur, DEPUTY US EDITOR

29 November 2023

Democrats are considering imposing tough new immigration rules as part of a bargain with Republicans to secure billions of dollars in funding for Ukraine.

Senators from both parties are locked in talks over a string of proposals including tightening the rules for would-be asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border.

Republicans are also seeking to clamp down on Joe Biden’s power to temporarily admit refugees to the US, a vehicle he used to admit tens of thousands of refugees from Afghanistan and Ukraine.

Senate Republicans are making the demands a potential condition of their support for the president’s request for $106 billion in emergency funding, largely for military aid to Ukraine and Israel in addition to funding US border security. 

A number of Democratic senators have said they support tightening immigration rules amid fears the chaotic scenes unfolding on America’s southern border have become a political albatross going into the 2024 election.

Leaders in Democratic-strongholds have already sounded the alarm over the influx of migrants, including New York, whose mayor warned the crisis could “destroy” the city.

In a sign of just how much the party’s position has shifted, reports suggest Democratic negotiators have not demanded protections for “Dreamers”, undocumented immigrants brought into the country as children, as part of the deal.

Offering a pathway to citizenship for the “Dreamers” is a longstanding Democratic priority.

In anticipation of a progressive backlash, the White House has been quietly contacting progressive groups, including prominent immigration advocates, to prepare them for compromises they might find unsavoury, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Senator Thom Tillis, one of the Republican negotiators, said the two parties were making progress on tightening asylum rules but suggested Democrats were resisting demands to rein in Mr Biden’s humanitarian parole powers.

The White House has been using the mechanism to encourage people to enter the US via an official route in a desperate bid to bring down the number of illegal border crossings.

Under the system, migrants are granted permission to enter until a court date to hear their asylum case.

Republicans have argued that it has not discouraged illegal crossings and many granted parole simply remain in the country undocumented.

One GOP proposal would impose strict limits on the number permitted entry under parole authority each year, another would restrict the powers to one-off cases rather than entire groups of people.

Republicans have also floated reviving the Trump-era policy of forcing migrants to remain in Mexico while their cases are processed.

Democrats are under pressure to secure a deal as soon as possible, with the White House calling it a “critical time” for Ukraine and one senator warning Kyiv was close to being “out of bullets”.

Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, has said he hopes to put the aid package to a vote next week.

“Republicans are making it difficult, but we’re going to keep at it,” he said.

Any proposal will need GOP support to muster 60 votes in the 51-49 Democrat-led Senate, and to pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

The House has passed its own more hard-line border legislation to make its position clear and its Republican speaker Mike Johnson has warned it will not support Ukraine funding without border policy changes.