Visit

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, on an unannounced visit to Kyiv, said on Thursday that Ukrainian forces were „gradually gaining ground” in their counteroffensive against Russian forces. He announced that NATO now had over-arching framework contracts in place with arms companies worth 2.4 billion euros ($2.53 billion) for ammunition. Stoltenberg said such contracts would allow NATO members to replenish their depleted stockpiles while also continuing to provide Ukraine with ammunition, a key factor in the war. On the other hand, NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg also condemned Russian strikes near Ukraine’s border with NATO member Romania. He said there was no evidence such strikes were a deliberate attack on Romania but branded them „reckless” and „destabilizing”. In turn, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted that NATO members should provide Ukraine with more anti-aircraft systems, given the fear of a new Russian bombing campaign on Ukrainian energy infrastructures as winter approaches. The Ukrainian army is continuing its counter-offensive launched in June in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk provinces in the south and east, through which it is trying to reach the Sea of Azov to isolate Moscow’s troops from Crimea by land, while the Russian army attacks to the north.