By Oyintari Ben
While NATO members promised more weapons to the war-torn nation and equipment to aid in the restoration of the electricity infrastructure damaged by Russian attacks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claims that Ukrainian forces are in a “difficult” situation as they defend against attempted Russian advances in several regions.
The right bank of the Dnieper River and Kherson city further south have been continuously shelled by Russian artillery, according to the General Staff of Ukraine, which stated on Wednesday that its forces had successfully withstood six Russian strikes in the past 24 hours in the eastern Donbas region.
On Tuesday, air raid warning sirens sounded in a few locations, prompting people to seek shelter in bomb shelters; however, the all-clear later sounded throughout the nation. Russian forces bombarded Ukrainian sites in the eastern part of the Donetsk region with artillery, mortar, and tank fire.
Officials from the United States and Europe indicated that in addition to discussing military help, ministers would concentrate on non-lethal aid like gasoline, medical supplies, and winter equipment during their talks. The US declared it will give $53 million to purchase equipment for the electricity infrastructure.
More military aid for Ukraine was a priority, according to US President Joe Biden, but Republicans, who will take over the House of Representatives in January, have talked about stopping the financing, which has exceeded $18 billion.
After a string of setbacks on the battlefield, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg charged Russian President Vladimir Putin with “seeking to exploit winter as a weapon of war.”
Dmytro Kuleba, the foreign minister of Ukraine, told reporters outside the NATO summit that his country required transformers for its electricity demands as well as “air defense” such as IRIS, Hawks, and Patriots.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned NATO against providing Ukraine with Patriot missile defence systems and denounced the Atlantic alliance as a “criminal entity” for delivering arms to what he called “Ukrainian fanatics”.
