“NATO has taken over the coordination of military aid to Kyiv instead of the US – ZMINATO has officially taken over the coordination of western military aid to Ukraine from the US through the new NSATU mission in Wiesbaden. The mission will include 700 personnel based in Belgium, Poland and Romania.”, — write on: unn.ua
According to the publication, this step, made after a delay of several months, gives NATO a more direct role in the war against the Russian invasion, while not using its own forces.
However, diplomats acknowledge that the transfer of powers to NATO may have a limited effect, given that the US under Trump could still deal a major blow to Ukraine by reducing its support, since it is the dominant force in the alliance and supplies most of the weapons to Kiev.
Trump, who will take office in January, said he wants to quickly end the war in Ukraine. He has long criticized the scale of US financial and military aid to Ukraine.
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The headquarters of the new NATO mission in Ukraine, named NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU), is located in Clay Barracks, an American base in the German city of Wiesbaden.
A person familiar with the situation told Reuters that it is now fully operational. No public reasons for the delays were given.
In the past, the US-led Ramstein Group, an ad hoc coalition of some 50 countries named after the US air base in Germany where it first met, coordinated Western military supplies to Kyiv.
Meanwhile, the outgoing administration in Washington is scrambling to send as many weapons as possible to Kyiv amid fears that Trump may cut military supplies to Ukraine.
Trump threatened to pull out of NATO during his first term as president and demanded that allies spend 3% of national GDP on their armed forces, compared to NATO’s target of 2%.
The total strength of NSATU will be approximately 700 personnel, including military personnel based at the headquarters of the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SHAPE) in Belgium and logistics bases in Poland and Romania.