NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte met with NATO’s new command to support security aid to Ukraine, according to the alliance’s press office.
Rutte met with the NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), General Christopher Cavoli and other senior officials during his first visit to the Alliance’s Supreme Headquarters (SHAPE) in the Belgian city of Mons on Monday.
The Secretary General travelled with General Cavoli to Wiesbaden, Germany, to visit the new Security Assistance and Training Ukraine (NSATU) command at Clay Barracks, the US base hosting the headquarters of the new mission. German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius joined them there.
Rutte stated that the new command “will make a real difference for Ukraine on the battlefield and for our own security.” NSATU will coordinate the provision of military training and equipment to Ukraine by NATO allies and partners. The training will include artillery, ammunition and air defence equipment.
The message [to Russian President Vladimir Putin] is that we will continue, that we will do what’s necessary to make sure that he will not get his way, that Ukraine will prevail.
The move is widely seen as an attempt to protect the aid mechanism from a possible return of NATO critic Donald Trump to the White House. Trump, a Republican, will run against Democrat Kamala Harris in the US election on 5 November.
The NSATU will have a total strength of about 700 troops, including forces stationed at NATO’s SHAPE military headquarters in Belgium and at logistics centres in Poland and Romania. The Wiesbaden base will also house the US unit responsible for the long-range missiles Washington temporarily deploys in Germany from 2026.
Fragile support
However, the German Defence Ministry said that it considered Ukraine’s ability to conduct another counter-offensive attempt in the near future unlikely and had no plans to transfer new military equipment to the AFU, despite the fact that the Bundeswehr possessed about 300 Leopard 2 tanks, according to Bild.
US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson also said that he did not support further financial aid from the US budget for Ukraine.
I don’t have an appetite for further Ukraine funding, and I hope it’s not necessary.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s tour amid the cancellation of a summit meeting of the Ramstein Group of Arms Donors for Ukraine did not bring any fruitful results. Kyiv reportedly failed to obtain permission to strike deep into Russia with the long-range weapons.
