NATO Chief Warns “Be Prepared for Bad News” on Ukraine

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned that the military bloc’s defense industry has not sent adequate munitions to Kiev. We should be prepared for “bad news” but continue to support Ukraine.

The mayor of Kyiv says Zelensky’s a dictator.

Stoltenberg sat for an interview on Germany’s Das Erste TV channel on Saturday and admitted there had been no breakthroughs on the battlefield for the past several months.

He said that the front lines in Ukraine have remained unchanged, and “wars are difficult to plan.”

Russia, he warned, has stockpiled missiles for the winter.

“We have to be prepared for bad news. Wars move in phases, but we must stand by Ukraine in good and in bad times alike,” NATO’s chief insisted.

According to Stoltenberg, “ramping up production is of decisive importance” at this juncture.

“I think one of the problems that we must address is the fragmentation of the European defense industry. We are not capable of working so closely together as we should,” NATO’s secretary general stated. He called on all member states to “overcome the national, narrow interests” and increase supplies instead of enjoying rising prices.

Washington provides most of the cash and munitions to keep the war and the Ukrainian government going.

Speaking after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels on Wednesday, Stoltenberg warned that “Russia has amassed a large missile stockpile ahead of winter, and we see new attempts to strike Ukraine’s power grid and energy infrastructure.”

In a candid assessment, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny said no “beautiful breakthrough” was imminent and that breaking the deadlock could require advances in technological warfare, reports the NY Times.

“Just like in the First World War we have reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate,” the commander, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, told The Economist in an interview published on Wednesday. “There will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough.”

Authoritarianism

The Mayor of Kiev Vitaly Klitschko has said that Ukraine’s municipal authorities now remain the only independent force in the country. It has become increasingly authoritarian.

Klitschko shared his views Ukraine is on the path to authoritarianism,” the mayor said. “There is only one independent institution left –local authorities– and they are under enormous pressure.”

In an interview with German daily Der Spiegel, published on Friday, he said that communication is non-existent.

“In a year and a half since the beginning of the conflict with Russia, there has not been a single meeting or telephone conversation between [the city of] Kiev and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. At some point, we will get to the situation where everything depends on the mood of a single person,” Klitschko told Der Spiegel.

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