The issue of further assistance to Kyiv will be on the agenda of the upcoming meeting of NATO Defense Ministers in Brussels on February 14-15, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said at a press conference ahead of the meeting on Monday.

"It's urgent to provide Ukraine with more weapons," he said.

According to Stoltenberg, "the faster we can deliver weapons, ammunition, spare parts, fuel to the Ukrainian front the more lives we save, and the better we support efforts to find a peaceful, negotiated solution to this conflict."

The Secretary General also said that it is necessary to ramp up production of weapons, and this issue will be one of the key subjects of discussion during the ministerial meeting.

"We need to ramp up production. And invest in our production capacity," he said.

"Ministers will also focus on ways to increase our defense industrial capacity and replenish stockpiles," Stoltenberg said.

According to him, the war in Ukraine is consuming an enormous amount of munitions, and depleting Allied stockpiles, and "the current rate of Ukraine's ammunition expenditure is many times higher than our current rate of production. This puts our defense industries under strain."

NATO has just completed an extraordinary survey of its munitions stockpiles, Stoltenberg said, adding that several Allies, including the United States and France, have already signed new multi-year contracts with the defense industry.

"Orders placed today would only be delivered two-and-a-half years later," he said.

Stoltenberg also said that the Allies should increase their defense spending.

"All of this work requires continued investment in our defense. So Ministers will discuss ways to maintain and step up defense spending across the Alliance," he said.

"With eight consecutive years of increases by European Allies and Canada.I expect that we will see further increases in defense spending this year," the Secretary General said.