The United States said it would give Ukraine a new military aid package worth $200 million as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy traveled to NATO's headquarters in Belgium to press for more support for his war-ravaged country ahead of the onset of the cold season.
"I'm proud that the United States will announce its latest security assistance package for Ukraine, valued at $200 million," U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said alongside Zelenskiy at the opening of a meeting of the U.S.-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group, also known as the Ramstein format, which consists of some 50 countries that back Kyiv in its war against Russia.
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Austin said the new package will consist of air-defense, rocket, and artillery ammunition as well as anti-tank systems, among other things, adding that Washington "will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes."
Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told the Defense Contact Group that his country will deliver the first U.S.-made F-16 warplanes to Ukraine in the spring of next year. In August, Zelenskiy said Denmark had approved sending 19 of the advanced warplanes to Ukraine.
Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said after meeting with Zelenskiy that Belgium will send F-16s to Ukraine from 2025 and provide their maintenance.
Austin announced that the United States will take on a new leadership role in the effort to build Ukraine’s air force, specifically with F-16 fighter jets. The United States will co-lead a coalition along with Denmark and Netherlands and will help organize donation of the aircraft, plans to maintain them, and pilot training.
Zelenskiy earlier on October 11 held talks with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg during his first visit at the alliance's headquarters in Belgium since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Zelenskiy, whose visit also came ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers and a gathering of the NATO-Ukraine Council, said Ukraine needs more weapons to protect civilians, its energy infrastructure, and its food exports.
"What we are seeing now is that [Russian] President [Vladimir] 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," Stoltenberg said after the meeting.
Zelenskiy also noted the war being waged between Israel and Hamas-- designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and EU -- saying Ukrainians understand such tragedy. But he pointed to Ukraine's ongoing need for air-defense systems and long-range missiles “to push Russia out of our land.”
He said he had received assurances from Washington that military aid to Ukraine will remain "constant and uninterrupted."
The NATO-Ukraine Council was established at the NATO summit in Vilnius in July and serves as a platform for exchanges during crisis situations and aims to promote deeper cooperation until Ukraine can fulfil conditions for NATO membership.
SEE ALSO: How Russia's GRU Set Up A Fake Private Military Company For Its War In UkraineDefense Minister Rustem Umerov also attended the meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council to present the alliance with a list of Ukraine's priorities. This includes more air defense systems, heavy weapons, and ammunition.
He told reporters afterward that Ukraine received half a billion dollars in pledges of aid as a result of the meeting. Umerov said the pledges were verbal commitments that "need to be calculated" but added: "From what we see in commitments, there is a lot that we did not expect."
There are now obligations to ensure that Ukraine gets everything on time, and planning will begin for the medium and long-term, he said.
Britain's Defense Ministry on October 11 said the International Fund for Ukraine -- a group of countries including Britain, Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden -- would announce a 100 million pound ($122.70 million) package in Brussels to support Ukraine's armed forces including equipment to clear minefields.
Zelenskiy on October 10 visited Romania, Ukraine's NATO neighbor, where he held talks in Bucharest with his counterpart, Klaus Iohannis.
Zelenskiy said the two sides discussed military aid for Ukraine, and that "there will soon be very good news about artillery and air defense" and confirmed that a center for training Ukrainian pilots on U.S.-made F-16 warplanes will be established in Romania.
Ukraine Reports 'Partial Success' In East And South Against Russian Forces
On the battlefield, Russian forces have stepped up their attacks on Avdiyivka, an industrial town in the eastern region of Donetsk with a prewar population of around 31,000 people that has now shrunk to an estimated 2,000, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported in their daily bulletin on October 11.
The Russians, with up to three battalions supported by tanks and armored vehicles, intensified offensive actions in the Avdiyivka, Tonenko, Keramik, and Pervomayske areas of Donetsk, the military said.
The head of the presidential administration in Kyiv, Andriy Yermak, reported "massive attacks by Russian artillery" on the strategically important Avdiyivka, located just north of the city of Donetsk, seized by Russian-backed forces in 2014.