NATO takes over coordination of military assistance to Ukraine – media
NATO, as planned, took over the coordination of Western military assistance to Ukraine, which was previously carried out by the United States, this step is aimed at protecting the support mechanism from Donald Trump, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing sources.
“The headquarters of NATO’s new Ukraine mission, dubbed NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU), is located at Clay Barracks, a U.S. base in the German town of Wiesbaden,” the agency informs. According to the agency's source, the NSATU base is already fully ready for operation.
The total number of NSATU will be about 700 people, including military personnel stationed at the NATO SHAPE military headquarters in Belgium and in logistics centers in Poland and Romania.
In the past, Western military supplies to Kyiv were coordinated by the U.S.—led Ramstein Group, a special coalition of about 50 countries named after the American air base in Germany, where it first gathered.
Meanwhile, the outgoing administration in Washington is trying to send Kyiv as many weapons as possible amid fears that Trump may reduce the supply of military equipment to Ukraine.
At the same time, diplomats acknowledge that the transfer of powers to NATO may have a limited effect, since the United States under Trump can still inflict a serious blow on Ukraine by reducing its support, since they are the dominant force of the alliance and supply Kyiv with most of the weapons.
Trump, who will take office in January, has said he wants to end the war in Ukraine quickly, but has not said how he intends to do so. He has long criticized the scale of American financial and military assistance to Ukraine.
Trump threatened to withdraw from NATO during his first term and demanded that the allies spend 3% of national GDP on their armed forces, whereas in NATO this figure is 2%. Russia has condemned the increase in Western military aid to Ukraine as a risk of expanding the war.