Jens Stoltenberg, the Secretary-General of NATO, applauded recent Western allies' agreements to provide Ukraine with heavy weapons and predicted that further deliveries would come "shortly."
The commander of the transatlantic military alliance made the remarks on Sunday, one day after a slew of Russian assaults throughout Ukraine once again targeted vital infrastructure and claimed at least 30 lives when a residential building in the east-central city of Dnipro was struck.
A day after the remarks were made by the commander of the transatlantic military alliance, there were assaults.
"The recent commitments for heavy combat equipment are essential, and I anticipate more shortly," Stoltenberg was reported as saying in the German newspaper Handelsblatt before a meeting of military officials from the bloc on Friday that was intended to arrange weapons deliveries to Kyiv. Before the meeting, Stoltenberg said these things.
The third meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, as it is known inside the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), will take place on Friday at the US Ramstein Air Base in the Rhineland region of Germany-Palatinate.
Stoltenberg said that "we are at a pivotal phase of the war" in response to the question of whether Germany must also intervene to send heavier weapons to Ukraine.
“We are engaged in a tough battle. Therefore, we must provide Ukraine with the weapons it needs to not only win the war but also preserve its position as a sovereign nation.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, demanded more powerful weapons from the West on Saturday, claiming that a military victory would be necessary to put an end to the "horror" that Russia is bringing.
What conditions must this meet?
In his statement that evening, Zelenskyy mentioned the weapons that are now housed in the storage facilities of our friends.
He said this shortly after UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that his country will send Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, making the UK the first Western country to transfer heavy tanks to Kyiv.
The declarations made by Poland and Finland signaling their willingness to provide Ukraine with tanks produced by Germany's Leopard 2 firm have intensified the pressure on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his coalition government.
As of February 24, 2022, when Russia's invasion of Ukraine began, European allies have refrained from directly supplying that country with heavy weapons. This pattern implies a more significant shift in the attitudes of European allies, who may now be more eager to cooperate.
It happens when Russia announces its first significant combat victory after months of setbacks and inaction.
Last week, the Russian army ministry said that it had "finished the liberation" of Soledar, a city near the Bakhmut transportation hub in the eastern Donetsk area. This occurs when Russia claims to have had its first important combat victory after months of defeats and inaction.
In response, Ukraine denied the charges and said that severe fighting was still going on in Soledar.
It is very unlikely that Ukrainian soldiers are now holding positions within the hamlet of Soledar proper, according to a statement issued on Sunday by the Institute for the Study of War, which is based in the US.
