Zelenskiy, at NATO HQ, asks for weapons to face winter of ‘terror’

As his nation prepares for a volley of Russian assaults on power plants and other infrastructure, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy requested NATO partners for stronger weaponry and air defenses on Wednesday.

Zelenskiy visited NATO headquarters for the first time since Russia invaded the region last year, when the U.S. Congress was in disarray, and the world focused on another crisis developing in Israel.

To put Moscow on the defensive in the conflict, he made direct analogies between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. He argued that Western military assistance was essential.

“The winter air defence is a significant part of the answer to the question of when this war will end and whether it will end justly for Ukraine,” he stated.

At a gathering of defense ministers from NATO and around 20 other nations that provide military assistance to Ukraine, organized by the United States and known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, he continued, “We must win the winter struggle against terror, and we can win it.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced a fresh $200 million defense package for Ukraine, including air defense ammunition and missiles to counter Russian drones. He reaffirmed the West’s commitment to helping Ukraine for however long it takes.

Putin is “getting ready once more to use winter as a weapon of war,” according to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, by assaulting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

“We need to prevent that; with more advanced and increased capabilities for air defense, we can make a big difference,” Stoltenberg stated.

US RESURRECTION
Ukraine launched a counteroffensive throughout the summer to reclaim land in the south and east. Still, it has been unable to progress significantly past Russia’s network of fortifications and minefields.

Since Russia’s invasion, Washington has given Kyiv $44 billion to buy hundreds of tanks, rocket launchers, and millions of rounds of ammunition. Still, support among Americans for both major political parties is dwindling.

Austin and Air Force General Charles Q. Brown, the next senior military official in the United States, want to convince Ukraine and NATO allies that Washington would continue to help Kyiv despite funding being delayed by partisanship in the U.S. Congress.

However, they will also need to persuade friends that Washington can defend Ukraine while assisting Israel in fending off attacks from militants of the Hamas movement.

Presidents have attempted to shift the country’s attention away from the Middle East, but crises may divert military resources from other regions.

Zelenskiy aimed to present the Hamas attacks and the Russian invasion as two sides of the same coin.

“Terrorists like Putin or like Hamas seek to hold free and democratic nations as hostages and they want power,” he stated.

“(Russia) still has the means to stir up conflicts and transform them into major tragedies, as it currently does in the Sahel. Additionally, it may take place in Israel and the Middle East with much greater anguish.

Asserting that it was forced to conduct what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine, Russia has denied that it has targeted civilians and blamed the West for the conflict there. It refers to Ukrainian accusations that Moscow is attempting to escalate the crisis in the Middle East as being without merit.

Hamas, which wants the destruction of Israel, claims that the 16-year Gaza siege and the worst Israeli crackdown in years in the occupied West Bank justify their strike.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant will participate in a videoconference with NATO ministers on Thursday to address the Hamas attack and its repercussions.