NATO Plans To Improve Assistance To Ukraine, Discussing The Provision Of Patriot Missile Defense Systems

Illustration of Patriot missile defense system. (Wikimedia Commons/DoD/Glenn Fawcett)

JAKARTA - North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries will help Ukraine repair energy infrastructure heavily damaged by Russian bombings, with the NATO Secretary-General saying Moscow wants to use winter as a weapons of war.

Russia has carried out massive missile attacks on Ukraine's power grid and heating infrastructure roughly every week since October, which Kyiv and its allies say is a deliberate campaign to hurt civilians, war crimes.

Russia admits to attacking Ukraine's energy infrastructure, but denies deliberately trying to hurt civilians.

"Russia is using brutal missile and drone attacks to make Ukraine cold and dark this winter," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, as alliance foreign ministers completed the first of two days of talks in the Romanian capital, Bucharest. November 29.

"President (Vladimir) Putin is trying to use winter as a weapons of war, to force Ukrainians to freeze or flee. He is trying to break the wishes of the brave and divided Ukrainian people who support them," he added.

NATO foreign ministers have pledged to increase political and practical support to Ukraine, defending it as long as necessary.

"Russian aggression, including its persistent and unreasonable attacks on Ukraine's civil and energy infrastructure, seized millions of basic Ukrainian services," they said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Ukraine urged its Western partners to supply it with air defense and transformer systems to build up Russian attacks.

"If we have transformers and generators, we can restore our energy needs. If we have an air defense system, we can protect against the next Russian missile strike," said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

"In short, Patriots and transformers are what Ukraine needs the most," he said.

In this regard, Stoltenberg said allies were discussing the provision of Patriot air defense units, but warned the transmitted systems should be effective, maintained and equipped with sufficient ammunition, which is a separate "big challenge".

The United States itself announced it would provide $53 million to purchase power grid equipment for Ukraine.

"This equipment will be delivered quickly to Ukraine in a state of emergency, to help Ukrainians survive the winter," the State Department said in a statement, adding that the package would include distributional, wave-breaking, and wave-resistant transformers among other equipment.