NATO foreign ministers are gathering in Brussels, where the alliance’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is proposing a five-year, 100 billion euro ($107 billion) military and fund for Ukraine. It is not yet clear where the money would come from.
The U.K.’s Foreign Minister David Cameron meanwhile is urging member states to invest more in defense and increase industrial production, saying it is necessary if the alliance wants Ukraine to defeat Russia.
Elsewhere, Ukraine’s air defenses shot down four Iranian-made Shahen drones fired from Russia overnight, its air force said in a statement.
Images show the latest from the Russia-Ukraine war
Photos published via Getty Images on Wednesday show people reacting to Russian shelling in the Sumy region of northern Ukraine and a military band performing to commemorate the 34th anniversary of raising the Ukrainian flag in western Live.
over terror attacks
The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office sent official requests for information to the U.S., France, Germany and Cyprus over its suspicion of Western states’ potental involvement in terror attacks inside Russia, state news outlet Tass reported, citing a statement from the government office.
Tass reported that the office was prompted to send the inquiries following requests from members of Russia’s State Duma to investigate potential foreign involvement in terror attacks including the attack at Moscow’s Crocus City concert hall in late March which killed at least 144 people, as well as the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions.
In its statement, Russia’s top prosecution body said it hoped that “our colleagues in these countries will earnestly consider the requests and fulfill their obligations under the 1999 International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and the 1997 International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, which involve investigating the information provided, facilitating efforts to obtain evidence necessary for probes, and ensuring that punishments be duly carried out.”
NATO’s Stoltenberg pitches plan to change how aid is sent to Ukraine
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is pressing for the alliance to be more directly involved in the delivery of military aid to Ukraine.
Speaking at the meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, Stoltenberg said the organization will examine how it can take on a greater role in coordinating weapons and other equipment for Kyiv — something that has thus far been the purview of a U.S.-led contact group.
“Ukraine has urgent needs — any delay in providing support has consequences on the battlefield as we speak,” Stoltenberg told the meeting’s attendees. “So we need to shift the dynamics of our support.”
“We must ensure reliable and predictable security assistance to Ukraine for long haul so that we rely less on voluntary contributions and more on NATO commitments, less on short term offers and more on multiyear pledges,” he said, declining to provide specifics but adding that a multi-year financial commitment would also be part of the plan.
“NATO allies provide 99% of all military support to Ukraine,” he said. “So doing more under NATO would make our efforts more efficient and more effective.”
Ukraine lowers military mobilization age to expand fighting force
Ukraine’s new law lowering the military mobilization age from 27 to 25 went into effect on Wednesday, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the legislation a day prior. Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, approved the law in May 2023.
The lowered mobilization age
“is one of many measures that Ukraine has been considering in an ongoing
effort to create a sustainable wartime force-generation apparatus,” and
“will support the Ukrainian military’s ability to restore and
reconstitute existing units and to create new units,” the U.S.-based
think tank Institute for the Study of War wrote in a report.
“Ukraine
will need to equip any newly mobilized military personnel with weapons,
and prolonged US debates about military aid to Ukraine and delays in
Western aid may impact the speed at which Ukraine can restore degraded
and stand up new units,” the report said, adding that Western-provided
equipment remains the “greatest deciding factor” in the Ukrainian
military’s combat abilities. See More News
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