Ukraine's allies on October 12 announced the delivery of new air defenses and committed more military aid to Kyiv to protect against Russia's "indiscriminate" missile attacks across the country.
Russia has launched waves of missile strikes on several regions of Ukraine for two days in a row, bombing multiple cities, including Kyiv, as reprisals for a blast at the weekend that damaged the only bridge between Moscow-annexed Crimea and mainland Russia.
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Pledges from allies included an announcement by France that it would deliver radar and air-defense systems to Ukraine in the coming weeks. Canada said it would provide artillery rounds and winter clothing among other supplies.
Germany has sent the first of four planned IRIS-T SLM air-defense systems while Washington said it would speed up delivery of a promised NASAMS air-defense system.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Russia's latest attacks had laid bare its "malice and cruelty" since invading Ukraine.
In a scathing assessment of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war effort, he said the actions have unified the international community.
"The whole world has just seen yet again the malice and cruelty of Putin's war of choice, rooted in aggression and waged with deep contempt for the rules of war," Austin told the gathering, sitting next to Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov.
"But Russia's latest assaults have only deepened the determination of the Ukrainian people and further united countries of goodwill from every region on Earth."
Austin told reporters after the meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Brussels that Ukraine had shifted momentum since September with extraordinary gains but would need more help.
He expects Ukraine will continue to do all it can throughout the winter to regain its territory, "and we're going to do everything we can to make sure that they have what's required to be effective," he said.
U.S. General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Ukraine wants a complete air-defense system to defend against aerial attack.
"What Ukraine is asking for, and what we think can be provided, is an integrated air missile-defense system. So that doesn't control all the airspace over Ukraine, but they're designed to control priority targets that Ukraine needs to protect," Milley told reporters.
It would involve short-, medium-, and long-range systems capable of firing projectiles at all altitudes.
"It's a mix of all these that deny the airspace to Russian aircraft" and missiles, Milley said.
NATO ministers, who kicked off a two-day meeting on October 12, are expected to decide to increase stockpiles of munitions and equipment to strengthen the alliance's defense and deterrence capacities amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Minister are also due to discuss the alliance's nuclear capabilities ahead of NATO's annual nuclear-training exercise and the need to better protect critical infrastructure after recent acts of alleged sabotage.
NATO aspirants Sweden and Finland are invited to the gathering.