By Lacity
The Ramstein participants also promised artillery ammunition, and the first drones from the coalition will arrive at the end of March.
The 20th anniversary meeting of the contact group on Ukraine’s defense in the Ramstein format ended with an important assurance that Ukraine’s skies will not be left unprotected.
“The partners assured us of further provision of more missiles for our air defense systems,” the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine said in an official statement.
This announcement was a response to a number of publications in the Western media, where the reliability of the supply of anti-aircraft missiles to the Ukrainian Armed Forces was questioned due to the lack of stable assistance from the United States. In particular, even the latest aid package worth $300 million over 2.5 months contained only Stinger missiles.
But now there are options for transferring anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine, and a face-to-face meeting in the Ramstein format could well help avoid a possible shortage of missiles for air defense.
“The participants were informed that the F-16 preparation activities are going well according to plan,” is another equally important statement from the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. This is especially true when the timing of the arrival of the fighter jets has begun to shift to the right and the first quarter of 2024 has gradually turned from “spring” to “summer”.
The primary focus was on ammunition. And during the meeting, “a very large number of countries” announced aid packages containing a variety of artillery ammunition in calibers from 105 to 155 mm, including Soviet-style shells.
Also, according to an official report, the newly created “drone coalition,” which has been joined by several other countries, is expected to produce its first results by the end of March. At that time, the Ukrainian Defense Forces will deploy the first drones acquired under this international initiative.
