New Delhi: Ukraine’s efforts to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the European Union (EU) suffered a jolt this week as the NATO Summit at The Hague wrapped up without any mention of the same in the official declaration.
The member countries of NATO, however, agreed to invest five per cent of their GDP, which includes 3.5 per cent GDP into core defence requirements, and 1.5 per cent on defence and security related to investments in infrastructure and industry by the year 2035.
The Summit gave the green signal for more defence equipment manufacturing by the European defence contractors, with the NATO leaders agreeing to ramp up and increase their defence budgets.
US President Donald Trump, while describing this as “a monumental win”, made it clear that NATO members should not rely on the US for any military support.
Driven by Trump, the defence budget of the NATO members is expected to pressurise Russian President Vladimir Putin to stay away from Kyiv.
Europe is trying to inflict maximum damage to Russia, not to contain, but to defeat it. Germany is providing assistance to Ukraine via money, weapons as well as setting up facilities for weapon production. The EU has adopted 17 sanction packages, the most recent being on May 14.
For the first time, Trump’s views were supported and accepted by the NATO member countries, all wanting to keep Europe “safe” from Putin. This summit brought into light a lot of fissures and factions between the US and Europe on Russia’s military might and intentions.
However, a rather laidback response was noted between Trump and the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Analysts reckon that Russia could mount a large-scale military attack on Ukraine in the coming months. While Russia is building up its forces with the aid of North Korea, Ukraine on the other hand is relying on the EU and NATO for more high tech defence equipment, including drones. Zelensky discussed the US Patriot Air Defence Systems (ADS) and joint weapons production with Trump. It has been reported that Trump might consider selling to Kyiv the US Patriot ADS and missiles, to bolster Ukraine’s ADS along with their European partners.
Ukraine would make a payment of USD $ 30-50 billion directly to the US, or via the fund under the US-Ukraine mineral deal, for the ADS. Ukraine has also upgraded its naval drone, Katran, with strike capabilities reaching targets up to a 100 kms away.
The fight against Russian reconnaissance and drones remains a top priority for Ukraine. Ukraine’s drones and missile strikes destroyed up to one-third of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet from 2022 to 2024.The Ukrainian drones are a force multiplier. After manufacturing more than a million drones last year, there have been plans made to cross the number and bring it to over two million this year.
Zelensky called the recent drone attack on the Tupolev nuclear-capable bomber fleet by Ukraine, which targetted five Russian air bases located 3000 km north-South and 5000 km West-East, on June 1, with 117 drones in a single operation called ‘Spider’s Web’, the longest range operation. (IANS)
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