Nato announces “historic” aid package for Ukraine – but hospital attack shows it is not enough | Nato

Following one of the heaviest Russian missile attacks on Ukraine in recent months, NATO leaders will meet in Washington DC this week to announce the details of a hard-fought aid package that would include vital air defense systems to protect Ukrainian cities.

The package presented by NATO countries has been described as “historic” and is widely seen as an attempt to “future-proof” further assistance to Ukraine. However, it is unlikely to fully satisfy Kyiv, which is facing unprecedented attacks on civilian objects and infrastructure.

The resumption of large-scale missile strikes on targets in Kyiv will add urgency to talks between NATO’s 32 leaders. Images from Kyiv show children at a pediatric cancer hospital covered in blood and dust after Monday’s attack, which a Biden administration official called “horrific, tragic, senseless.” Bodies are believed to still be trapped under the hospital’s rubble.

“This is a completely deliberate action, specifically planned and approved by … Putin. On the eve of the NATO summit. As a slap in the face of the Alliance,” wrote Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidential administration. He called it an “informal signal” that “even the open murder of children will not make them (the Alliance) make all the necessary decisions. And that is why we continue to attack.”

Observers expect NATO members to pledge at least four additional Patriot missile batteries to Ukraine at the end of the summit this week. Zelensky had previously asked NATO for seven batteries, telling NATO members that Putin must be “brought back to earth and our skies must be made safe again … And it all depends on your decision … (the) decision whether we are indeed allies.”

The four Patriot missile systems are expected to be supplied by the United States, Germany, Romania and a Dutch-led multinational. Spain, Greece and Poland also have Patriot missile systems but have not yet committed to supplying batteries to Ukraine. Another system could be supplied by Israel, which currently uses the Iron Dome and other air defense systems to protect against rocket and missile attacks.

“It is clear that allies must mobilize their forces and provide Ukraine with additional air defense systems, precisely to prevent tragedies like the one we have witnessed today, but unfortunately have also witnessed again and again, month after month since the start of this brutal and senseless war,” said Michael Carpenter, senior director for Europe at the U.S. National Security Council.

The new military aid package for Ukraine is expected to include a joint commitment by NATO members to spend at least 40 billion euros (43 billion dollars) on aid to Ukraine in 2025.

“Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Allies have provided Ukraine with 40 billion euros in military support every year,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said last month. “We must maintain at least this level of support, and for as long as it is needed.”

Stoltenberg had asked the 32 NATO member states for a multi-year commitment, but on the eve of the summit there seemed to be no agreement.

A European official said the idea of ​​a multi-year commitment was “still being discussed because some allies, including here, are unhappy with the idea of ​​a multi-year commitment because of its legal and institutional limitations. So I think we still have to wait and see.”

One way to get around this problem, the official said, would be to “simply make an annual commitment and then renew it at each summit.” Next year’s NATO summit is scheduled to take place in The Hague.

But this could only happen after the re-election of Donald Trump, who has threatened to cut aid to Ukraine or make it dependent on the start of talks with Russia.

“The big orange elephant in the room for the NATO summit is that everything good that is being said about Ukraine comes with a big caveat,” said Camille Grand, a former NATO deputy secretary general who now works at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “The question is, will all this hold if Trump is elected? And I don’t believe in bureaucracy … because it was agreed at the NATO summit that the Trump administration will abide by that.”

NATO members are expected to announce the creation of a new military command in Wiesbaden to coordinate military aid and training for Ukraine, replacing the US-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group. This would transfer responsibility for supplying Ukraine from the Pentagon to NATO. US officials have said this is a “bridge to membership” designed to prepare the country to work with the alliance if it joins “on day one”.

The new plan is also seen as a way to make future aid to Ukraine “Trump-proof” in the event of his election in November by “institutionalizing” aid to Kyiv.

Carpenter also said there will be announcements regarding the delivery of F-16s to Ukraine. Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway have pledged to deliver a total of about 80 U.S. F-16s to Ukraine, but the program to get the planes in the air has been hampered by delays in delivery and training. The first F-16s are expected this summer.

On the eve of the summit, diplomats said there was still “no consensus” that NATO should invite Ukraine to join the alliance at the summit. “Some allies are reluctant in this regard, but we are discussing wording to at least show that Ukraine’s path to membership is irreversible, that there is no way back,” a European official said.

A Biden administration official declined to comment directly on the text of the final communiqué, saying it was “still being negotiated.” But he said the summit declaration “will contain very strong signals of Allied support for Ukraine on its path to Euro-Atlantic integration. And it will also underscore the importance of Ukraine’s vital work on democratic, economic and security reforms.”