Ukraine support remains front and centre amid new global crisis, says NATO chief

NATO secretarial assistant superior general ​ deutsche mark Rutte said confederation members in agreement(p) ​they would find ways to continue supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia even as the burgeoning conflict in the Middle East has some nations in that region seeking European help to boost their ⁠arsenals, particularly with air defence weapons.

When asked in a Reuters interview on Thursday how European help would be possible given air defence support for Ukraine was already in limited supply, Rutte said industry would have to ramp up production of such weapons, just as it had done in recent years with artillery ammunition.

"We have to replicate what we are doing with ammunition when it comes to the other big-ticket items," he ⁠said.

In just under a week after the U.S. And Israel launched attacks on Iran, the conflict has reached European borders, most seriously when NATO member Turkey said the ​alliance's air defences were deployed Wednesday to destroy an Iranian ballistic missile as it headed into Turkish airspace.

As well, an Iranian-made drone on Monday targeted a British airbase on Cyprus, which is a European Union country though not a NATO member. The United Kingdom and a handful of other NATO countries were discussing sending naval assets to protect Cyprus.

Rutte said that in conversations with leaders from Europe and Canada in recent days, he was "sensing and hearing" a desire to "make sure ⁠that as allies we enable what the Americans ‌are doing in the Middle East and in Iran ... And at ​the same time making ⁠sure that Ukraine ⁠has what it ⁠needs ⁠to ​stay strong in the fight now but also hopefully past a peace deal to be as strong as possible going forward."

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Wednesday that he has spoken with the leaders of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait about possible co-operation, as a number of countries have heightened airspace concerns as Iran has fired drones and missiles the past six days.

Ukrainian manufacturers have developed low-cost interceptor drones specifically designed to hunt and destroy Iran's Shahed drones, and the industry is producing excess capacity.

"Better to do that with anti-drone technology than with expensive interceptors," said Rutte, praising Ukraine for "stepping up."

Rutte, the former prime minister of Netherlands, also told Reuters that "Ukrainians are posing extreme losses on the Russians months in, months out, many times more than the Russians lost in Afghanistan in the 1980s."

Ukraine gained more territory in February than it lost for the first time since 2023, according to the Finland-based Black Bird Group analysis team.

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The spiralling crisis in the Middle East could lead to a postponement in the next round of trilateral talks with Russia, Zelenskyy said on Thursday, as well as a change of location.

New negotiations to end the four-year-old war had been floated for sometime between March 5 and March 9 in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.

"We spoke with the American side, since they are the party inviting Ukraine and Russia to the meeting, about the possibility of changing the location and postponing the meeting for a while due to the war in the Middle East," Zelenskyy said in a post on X.

The Ukraine president repeated his criticism of Moscow's demand that Ukraine withdraw from the remaining 20 per cent of its eastern Donetsk region. Russia has said Ukraine needs to give up control of the industrialized region, which Russia has been unable to fully conquer. Kyiv has refused to so.

Ukraine returned 200 prisoners of war in ‌its latest swap with Russia, including ​troops captured in Moscow's ​siege of Mariupol in early 2022, ​Zelenskyy also ⁠said on ⁠Thursday.

Russia's Interfax ​news agency, citing ‌the Russian Defence Ministry, also reported an exchange of 200 persons each.

Meanwhile, the war has exacerbated tensions over energy supply.

Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday said it will meet soon to discuss stopping gas exports to Europe. He linked the possible decision — which he said ​had not been taken yet — to the European Union's ⁠desire to ban ⁠purchases of Russian gas and ‌liquefied natural gas.

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Russian gas sales to Europe have fallen sharply since 2022 because of sanctions related to the war in Ukraine. But Russia still supplies LNG to ​the European Union, and also still sells gas via the Black Sea TurkStream pipeline to ⁠countries including Hungary, Slovakia and non-EU member Serbia.

President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday ​that Russia could halt supplies right now ​amid a spike in energy prices triggered by the Iran crisis.

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