Jens Stoltenberg, Surprise Visit to Kiev: “NATO Allies Did Not Deliver What We Promised in Recent Months”

In an unannounced visit to Ukraine, the NATO Secretary General held talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and will also address the Ukrainian parliament, the Rada.

“I will also be very honest with President Zelenskiy and also with the Rada that NATO allies have not delivered what we have promised in recent months,” Stoltenberg said on the train to Kiev on Monday.

His visit, the third since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, comes at a difficult time on the battlefield for Ukraine. After a failed Ukrainian counter-offensive last year, Russian forces gained ground, in part due to a lack of weapons and ammunition from Kiev’s Western partners.

“The United States waited six months to agree on a package, and the European allies did not deliver the promised ammunition. But now I am confident that things will change,” said the NATO leader.

Stoltenberg noted that the US Congress has now approved an aid package for Ukraine worth more than $60 billion, quickly signed by President Joe Biden, and recalled the announcement made last week by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of a “record” commitment ” vis-a-vis Kiev.

He also said Germany had agreed to supply Ukraine with a new Patriot air defense system, and the Netherlands had increased its aid to Kiev. He said he expected other “new commitments to follow”.

“This will make a difference, just as the lack of support made a difference,” he said, alluding to Ukrainian failures on the battlefield. He said the Russians had paid “a high price for marginal territorial gains” and that Ukraine could still turn things around.

“It is not too late for Ukraine to assert itself. But that is why it is so urgent that NATO allies now do what we have promised and turn these commitments into real deliveries of arms and ammunition, and I am confident that this will happen now,” Stoltenberg said.

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