US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, at the Ramstein meeting on November 22, removed any speculation about the alleged choice between Ukraine and Israel in the provision of military aid.
The US does not choose between Ukraine and Israel
The head of the press and information department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Illarion Pavlyuk, said at a briefing on the results of the 17th meeting in the Rammstein format that the US does not choose between Ukraine and Israel.
It is very important that yesterday our key US partner, namely the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, actually removed any speculation that the US allegedly has to choose between Israel and Ukraine.
According to Pavlyuk, during yesterday's negotiations, "an obvious statement was made twice that there can be no choice, the US stands by Israel, but at the same time is fully committed to all its obligations to support Ukraine."
And non-public statements also testified not only to deep support, but also to the excellent understanding by the partners of what they support Ukraine for and the understanding that this support is needed not only by Ukraine, it is needed by the civilized world and their countries as well, Pavlyuk said.
The 17th meeting in the Ramstein format
On November 22, the 17th meeting of the Contact Group on Defense of Ukraine took place within the framework of the Ramstein format. The heads of defense departments of more than 50 countries took part in it.
At the meeting, a new ground-based air defense coalition was formed. It was joined by 20 countries, the leaders being Germany and France.
$1.4 billion in aid has already been announced, including IRIS-T air defense systems, 8,000 new anti-tank mines, one air defense Patriot system, and additional 155mm artillery shells. Ukraine should receive everything by mid-December.
Britain and Norway will look for ways to strengthen security in the Black Sea as part of the Maritime Coalition.
Estonia is providing half a million dollars in funding for IT coalition activities in addition to Luxembourg's €10 million commitment.
