– What we do is not enough – NRK Urix – Foreign news and documentaries

– The reason we are discussing this is that we see the situation on the battlefield. We see how demanding and difficult the situation is in Ukraine.

This is what Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says at a press conference on Wednesday morning.

He opened the meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels, where they will discuss new, long-term financial support for the Ukrainian military.

The aim is to finalize an agreement on support at the NATO summit in July.

– Europe is now facing a war that we thought was inevitable in history. In recent days, the Kremlin has carried out new major attacks that have hit Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure. Russia continues to push along the front lines, Stoltenberg said.

– We welcome everything that the NATO allies have done. At the same time, we see that we must do more. What we do is not enough.

Will not comment on the amount

Stoltenberg will not confirm or deny the NATO proposal reported by the Financial Times, i.e. over a thousand billion kroner.

Al Jazeera also reports that the money from the proposal will be distributed over five years.

– We must change the dynamics of our support, says Stoltenberg, and adds this about the management of the defense alliance:

– We strongly believe that support to Ukraine should depend less on short-term, voluntary offers, and more on long-term NATO promises.

Victory The US has slowed down military support

An obstacle in the negotiation process recently has been NATO’s biggest contributor of military support to Ukraine, i.e. the USA, says Stoltenberg.

– The fact that there has been no agreement in the American Congress to continue with this support has consequences.

– That is one of the reasons why the Ukrainians have to ration artillery ammunition, and have problems meeting the Russian military power, which has more ammunition and more artillery.

Without enough ammunition, Ukraine will lose the war, said the Ukrainian member of parliament Oleksandra Ustinova when she visited the arms manufacturer Nammo at Raufoss before Easter.

Will secure Ukraine against political changes

It is expected that the American Foreign Minister Antony Blinken will highlight the transatlantic cooperation, which has been strengthened since Joe Biden became president.

Now that Donald Trump can take the leadership role back in November, several in the alliance are worried that the cooperation will once again be de-prioritized, write the Financial Times and Politico, among others.

They call the new proposal “Trump protection”, but the wording in the document itself is different.

It calls the amount in the proposal a protection against “the winds of political change”.

Norwegian State Secretary: – A sensible move anyway

NRK met State Secretary Eivind Vad Petersson at the opening of the foreign ministers’ meeting.

– To what extent do you think that the fear of what will happen after the election in the USA has anything to do with this way of thinking long-term and coordinated in NATO?

– It’s a sensible move in any case, we think. We are some 30 democracies where the political course changes, so that you get to institutionalize it a little more in a NATO framework makes it more sustainable in the long term.

– I am quite confident, after conversations with various political circles in the USA, that they are interested in ways in which we can continue to support Ukraine as well, regardless of who may sit in the White House.

He could not say whether the money that Norway has already earmarked for Ukraine will be included in the proposed proposal.

In the Nansen program for Ukraine, NOK 75 billion is set aside over five years for military support, emergency aid and other needs.

– Of course, some of the money from that could be included in joint NATO financing for Ukraine, but here there are a number of details that remain to be seen, says Petersson.

The meeting in Brussels lasts until tomorrow.