NATO and Ukraine hold emergency meeting on winter defense needs
Ukraine's briefings to allies focused on the scale of Russian threats and on pledges that have not yet become deliveries of equipment or funds.
The NATO-Ukraine Council met in Brussels on Thursday to discuss Ukraine's urgent defense needs ahead of winter, Ukraine's Mission to NATO said in a statement.
The meeting was held at NATO headquarters and chaired by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
Ukrainian officials Sergiy Boyev, who attended in person, and Serhii Sobko, who joined by video conference, briefed allied representatives during the session.
The mission said it was essential to "mobilise all partners to the fullest extent" and to turn earlier pledges into concrete deliveries of equipment or transfers of funds.
The mission said the meeting was especially important because it comes before the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting on Nov. 17, which is led by the United Kingdom and Germany.
The statement said this was the right time to brief partners on the scale and nature of Russian threats and to present Ukraine's needs, both to "fight tonight" and to "fight tomorrow," meaning its requirements for next year.
Background on the talks
The NATO-Ukraine Council is a forum where NATO members and Ukraine consult on security issues, and it has met repeatedly since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The Ukraine Defense Contact Group, often called the Ramstein format, was launched in 2022 to coordinate military support for Kyiv from many countries.
