WASHINGTON -- NATO officials have agreed at a summit in Washington to take further steps to bring Ukraine closer to the alliance and to counter the growing security threat posed by Russia by taking over the coordination of training and weapons deliveries from the United States.
The moves, announced by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at a news conference on July 10, include the launch of a centralized command in Germany and the establishment of a training and analysis center in Poland.
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They come with Russia making incremental gains on the battlefield in the wake of monthslong lags in aid and weapons supplies from the United States and Europe. Those delays highlighted Ukraine's vulnerability in trying to repel invading Russian forces.
Stoltenberg said the security assistance center will be located in Wiesbaden, Germany, and will be led by a three-star general overseeing around 700 personnel from across the alliance. They will be responsible for the coordination and provision of most of the international security assistance that is sent, he said.
NATO countries until now have coordinated support to Ukraine through an informal, U.S.-led body called the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.
The new center, which was approved by NATO defense ministers in June, will be formally known as the NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU) and will be part of Ukraine’s “irreversible path” to NATO membership.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it will be the first time NATO has dedicated a command to helping a country join NATO.
The operation in Poland will be known as a joint training and analysis center (JTAC), which will focus on improving NATO interoperability with Ukraine and studying the way the Ukraine war has changed warfare.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said the JTAC, which will be built in his hometown of Bydgoszcz, will examine the use of drones and other modern aspects of the Ukrainian war, which he said are causing NATO to reevaluate its assumptions.
“The role of drones has been transformational in this war, and we need to study it and learn [from] the lessons,” Sikorski said, speaking at a panel discussion on the sidelines of the summit. He envisions it becoming a state-of-the-art war analysis center that examines how drone warfare is changing the battlefield. And he predicted that Ukrainians eventually will take on major roles at the JTAC.
“In the future it won’t be us training the Ukrainians, the Ukrainians will be teaching us. And I hope JTAC will serve that,” he said.
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NATO Allies Map Out Commitments To Ukraine, 'Irreversible' Path To Membership
Stoltenberg said NATO’s plans to establish these two support facilities are within the elements of the “robust” security support package agreed during the summit along with providing Ukraine with 40 billion euros ($43 billion) in military aid for next year, bilateral agreements, and more equipment, including air-defense systems.
He said the decisions were “major” and would further strengthen NATO’s support for Kyiv and help Ukraine uphold its right to self-defense but would not make NATO a party to the conflict.
“We are not doing this because we want to prolong the war. We are doing this because we want to end the war as soon as possible,” Stoltenberg said.
Stoltenberg said that it’s important for NATO to show commitment and resolve at this point in the war.
“The more credible and enduring our support the quicker Moscow will realize it cannot wait us out and the sooner the war can end,” he said.