The Alliance agreed that Ukraine will become a member of NATO, your fight is our fight, said the NATO Secretary General after the meeting with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, ahead of the meetings of NATO Ministers of Defence in Brussels.

“First of all, we need today to mobilize more support for Ukraine. And as President Zelensky just said, this is about air defenses, about artillery, about ammunition. And I welcome the new announcement we have just heard in the last couple of days from Romania and also from Germany. And I expect more NATO Allies to make further announcements today for more support to Ukraine. Because we need to sustain and step up their support. Air defense is critical to protect the cities, the economy, the critical infrastructure of Ukraine. And that helps them to help themselves. Because then their economy can function, then things can work in Ukraine. And that will help Ukrainians to produce, to trade, to function as a normal country. And that will increase their ability to finance, and to provide also ammunition themselves for the war.

What we are seeing now is that President Putin is preparing, once again, to use winter as a weapon of war. Meaning attacking the energy system, the gas infrastructure. We need to prevent that. And with more advanced and increased capabilities for air defense, we can make a big difference.

NATO Allies have stepped up production. We have now 2,5… 2,4 billion in what we call framework contracts for increased ammunition production, out of which 1 billion is firm contracts. And we’re constantly working on ramping up production to enable Ukraine to continue to fight this just war, and to continue to move on to liberate the land.

Dear President Zelensky, welcome to NATO. Your fight is our fight. Your security is our security and your values are our values. We will stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes”, - said Jens Stoltenberg.