NATO Delivers Air Defense To Ukraine
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Member states of the U.S.-led NATO military rushed Wednesday to deliver advanced air defense weapons to Ukraine, where numerous people died in massive Russian missile strikes.
The weaponry, including missiles and radars, was promised by Canada, France, and the Netherlands after Germany and the U.S. made a similar pledge.
Ukraine’s defense minister, Oleksiy Reznikov, already praised the arrival of the first of four Iris-T defense systems from Germany.
The minister also lauded an “expedited” delivery of sophisticated National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (Nasams) from the United States.
The deliveries came as Ukraine’s allies from 50 countries met at NATO headquarters in Brussels amid mounting concern about the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia.
But the weaponry arrived too late to prevent a Russian strike on a crowded market in the town of Avdiivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, killing at least seven people and injuring eight others, authorities confirmed.
“There is no military logic in such shelling – only an unbridled desire to kill as many of our people as possible and intimidate others,” said the regional governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko.
The latest attack came after at least 19 people were killed Monday, on the first day of Russian missile strikes. Ukraine said Russia fired more than 100 missiles and used dozens of drones on Monday and Tuesday, hitting energy infrastructure and other non-military targets.
Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed that they were in retaliation for Saturday’s deadly attack on the Kerch bridge that links Russia with the occupied Crimea peninsula. Moscow said at least three people were killed in the truck bombing of Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Putin made veil threats to use nuclear weapons to defend annexed territories. Still, a NATO official warned that this would “almost certainly” trigger a “physical response” from Ukraine’s allies and potentially NATO.
Any use of nuclear weapons by Moscow would have “unprecedented consequences” for Russia, the unidentified official told the media.