Nato to support Ukraine with air defence, ammunition and artillery – StoltenbergStoltenberg said support for Ukraine from Nato would be “about air defence. It’s about artillery, it’s about ammunition”. He added that Nato had ramped up production of armaments and portrayed providing support for Ukraine as a virtuous circle:
Air defence is critical to protect the cities, the economy, the critical infrastructure of Ukraine, and that helps them to help themselves, because then the economy can function. Then things can work in Ukraine. And that will help the Ukrainians to also produce, to trade, to function as a normal country. And that will increase their ability to finance and to provide also ammunition themselves for the war.
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The press are now departing and the video stream is ending as the meeting of the Ukraine defence contact group at Nato in Brussels moves behind closed doors.
Stoltenberg has repeated the phrase that Russia is intending to use winter as a weapon of war, and he says that “the stronger Ukraine is on the battlefield, the stronger they will be at the negotiating table”, and that this will bring a swifter end to the war. He is talking about how Nato has removed barriers to Ukraine joining Nato. “Your fight is our fight,” he repeats.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has specifically linked Russian president Vladimir Putin and Hamas as, he says, terrorists who use terror tactics, and who he says are trying to hold free and democratic nations hostage.
Jens Stoltenberg is speaking now.
Zelenskiy has spoken at some length about Ukraine’s requirement for more air defence in order to protect energy and power infrastructure during the winter, which he said he expects Russia to target again.
US defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday the United States would continue to support Ukraine for as long as it takes, even amid the unfolding political chaos in Congress and despite the escalating violence in the Middle East.
“The United States will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes,” Austin said at the start of a meeting of Ukraine’s allies in Brussels.
“We’re here to dig deep to meet Ukraine’s most urgent needs – especially for air defence and ammunition,” Reuters reports Austin said, sitting alongside president Zelenskiy.
A Nato meeting has begun in Brussels, featuring Volodymyr Zelenskiy. I will bring you the key lines.
More details soon …
Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg has posted to social media about Volodymr Zelenskiy’s visit to Brussels. He said:
Honoured to welcome president Zelenskiy back to Nato. I thanked him for his leadership. As Russia prepares again to use winter as a weapon of war, we are committed to stepping up and sustaining our support for Ukraine.
Yellen: G7 price cap on oil has ‘significantly reduced Russian revenue’US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday said a G7-led price cap on Russian oil had sharply reduced Russian revenues over the past ten months, and that it was critical to keep imposing severe and increasing costs on Russia over its war in Ukraine.
Reuters reports she added that global energy prices have been largely unchanged while Russia has had to either sell oil at a significant discount or spend huge amounts on its alternative ecosystem.
“We cannot allow our support to Ukraine to be interrupted,” she said. “The Biden administration – with the support of a bipartisan majority of the US Congress and the American people – will work so that Ukraine receives the assistance it needs to win this war.”
Yellen, who was speaking at the annual meetings held by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Marrakech, said the Biden administration would also keep working to mitigate the impacts of Russia’s war in Ukraine, including on food security, while working with a global coalition to deprive Russia of the funding it needs to wage the war.
US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen speaks to the media yesterday in Marrakech, Morocco. Photograph: Susana Vera/ReutersHere is another image from the joint appearance by Jens Stoltenberg and Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Brussels this morning.
The Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, right, speaks with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy after addressing a media conference in Brussels. Photograph: Virginia Mayo/APAlexander Bogomaz, the regional governor, has messaged on Telegram again to say that the Bryansk region air defences have shot down another Ukrainian drone over Russia.
Overnight Tass reported in Russia that two aircraft-type Ukrainian drones were destroyed over the Bryansk region. It cited regional governor Alexander Bogomaz, who reported no casualties.