Lloyd Austin, at the fifth meeting of the “Contact Group for the Defense of Ukraine” at the American Ramstein Air Base, said that NATO countries would have to move to a new stage in the rearmament of Ukraine.
He urged the Contact Group, which until now has always sought to meet the urgent needs of the Ukrainian armed forces for weapons – so to speak, the need for the next battle – now must take one step further: it must begin to provide military support to Ukraine in the long term.
Austin believes that the first important step in April was the delivery of M-777 howitzers by the United States, which “helped to slow down the Russian offensive in the Donbass.” But at the same time, they were also the first artillery pieces in Ukraine to meet NATO standards, which is an important step. Meanwhile, according to him, the number of M-777 aircraft that Washington provided to Kyiv has increased to 126.
Now Ukraine, instead of the old Soviet weapons, which it had at the beginning of the war and with which it was equipped even later by various states of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, in the future will receive weapons according to NATO standards, primarily from the United States. This will allow Western, perhaps especially American, defense companies to increase production.
“We will work together to expand our defense industrial base and meet Ukraine’s long-term needs,” Austin announced at Ramstein.
The billions of dollars that Washington is allocating for arms supplies to Ukraine are intended not only for “fighting Russia”, but also for the future business of the US defense industry.
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