THE HAGUE (National Times) – Western countries must send Ukraine more heavy weaponry as it battles Russia s advance in the east of the country, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
“Yes, Ukraine should have more heavy weapons,” Stoltenberg told a press conference in The Hague after meeting the leaders of seven European NATO allies ahead of a key summit.<\/p>\n
Stoltenberg said NATO was already “stepping up” deliveries and officials would be meeting in Brussels on Wednesday to coordinate further support including heavy weaponry.<\/p>\n
“Because they absolutely depend on that to be able to stand up against the brutal Russian invasion,” Stoltenberg said.<\/p>\n
Ukraine has repeatedly begged for heavy weapons from the West, criticising some European leaders for failing to deliver arms that Kyiv says it needs to push back Moscow s forces.<\/p>\n
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Danish premier Mette Frederiksen were hosting Stoltenberg and the leaders of Poland, Romania, Latvia, Portugal and Belgium ahead of a crunch NATO summit in Madrid at the end of June.<\/p>\n
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki lamented that the West was “not doing enough” to support his country s neighbour Ukraine.<\/p>\n
“We have not done enough to defend Ukraine, to support the Ukrainian people, to support their freedom and sovereignty,” he told the press conference.<\/p>\n
“And this is why I urge you, I ask you to do much more to deliver weapons, artillery to Ukraine. They need this to defend their country.”<\/p>\n
Western countries would have no “credibility” if Ukraine lost against Russia, he added.<\/p>\n
“This would be a complete failure and disaster of the European Union, of our values and of NATO,” Morawiecki said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE HAGUE (National Times) – Western countries must send Ukraine more heavy weaponry as it battles Russia s advance in the east of the country, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday. “Yes, Ukraine should have more heavy weapons,” Stoltenberg told a press conference in The Hague after meeting the leaders of seven European […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n