Ukraine aid will be top issue at NATO summit, ambassador says
Photo: Alyona Getmanchuk, Head of Ukraine’s Mission to NATO (flickr.com)
Complex discussions are ongoing within NATO regarding future support for Ukraine, while some countries oppose fixed contribution commitments for aid to Kyiv, stated the Head of Ukraine’s Mission to NATO, Alyona Getmanchuk.
According to the ambassador, the Alliance is already entering the final phase of preparations for the summit in Ankara, where support for Ukraine will become one of the main topics.
One of the key issues remains NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte’s proposal for member states to allocate 0.25% of GDP to support Ukraine.
Getmanchuk noted that seven NATO countries have already reached or exceeded this level of funding.
"It is clear that these seven countries supported the idea, along with several others. But some countries would prefer, as they say, more flexibility and not to have fixed obligations regarding support for Ukraine. They would like to see some alternative option," she explained.
Despite this, support for Ukraine has already been officially designated as one of the three main priorities of the NATO summit.
"We are among the summit’s priorities. That is exactly why such an active discussion is underway about how this support should be measured and how it should be formalized," Getmanchuk said.
According to her, although the idea of allocating 0.25% of GDP did not gain support in its current form, it launched a broader discussion on how to make support for Ukraine "sustainable, predictable, and substantial."
"Perhaps the Secretary General deliberately set the bar high. A lively discussion has started, and this idea initiated the right conversation: how to ensure that support for Ukraine is fixed, sustainable, predictable, and substantial. And even, I would say, quantified — so that it is tied to specific figures," the head of Ukraine’s Mission to NATO added.
The ambassador also pointed out that there is little time left for compromise — only six weeks remain until the NATO summit, and some countries are not ready to approve specific figures or percentages of funding on paper.
"A difficult and delicate discussion is taking place regarding the distribution of the financial burden among NATO countries. Because, let's be honest, it is not entirely reasonable that just two countries are effectively covering nearly half of all pledged military aid contributions for Ukraine this year," she noted.
A similar situation exists with the PURL program, where fewer than ten countries are "carrying this burden."
At the same time, she called it positive that the strict fixation of the 0.25% target was not supported, because this could have become a kind of ceiling for states already providing Ukraine with more assistance.
"In this way, we will not demotivate countries that have already reached 0.25% or more from going beyond those figures. Because if 0.25% had been fixed, we would have effectively set a certain ceiling. And those countries that are most capable of helping us have already surpassed that level," Getmanchuk explained.
According to her, these countries will continue to remain the main donors of military support for Ukraine.
"Therefore, we should not stop or limit them, because we will continue turning to them for new contributions," the ambassador concluded.
Earlier, The Telegraph reported that several NATO countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, and Canada, blocked NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte’s initiative to allocate at least 0.25% of GDP for military aid to Ukraine.
