NATO assumes coordination of military aid to Ukraine from US - media

NATO has officially taken over the coordination of Western military aid to Ukraine from the United States, as planned.

This move is widely viewed as an effort to secure the support mechanism against potential changes under NATO-skeptic Donald Trump, Caliber.Az reports citing foreign media.

The transition, which comes after several months of delays, grants NATO a more direct role in the ongoing conflict against Russia's invasion, though it stops short of committing NATO forces to the war. Diplomats acknowledge, however, that the shift to NATO may have limited impact, given that the US remains the alliance's dominant power and the principal supplier of arms to Ukraine.

Trump, who will take office again in January, has expressed his desire to end the war in Ukraine quickly but has not outlined how he plans to achieve that. He has consistently criticized the scale of US financial and military assistance to Ukraine.

NATO's new mission, called the NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU), is headquartered at Clay Barracks, a US military base in Wiesbaden, Germany. The mission is now fully operational, though no official explanation for the delays has been provided.

Previously, the US-led Ramstein group, a coalition of about 50 nations, coordinated Western military aid to Kyiv, meeting regularly at a US airbase in Germany.

The outgoing US administration is working to send as many weapons as possible to Ukraine, fearing that Trump's return to office may result in a reduction of military aid. During his first term, Trump threatened to withdraw from NATO and demanded that allies spend 3 per cent of their GDP on defence, compared to NATO's target of 2 per cent.

NSATU is expected to consist of around 700 personnel, including troops stationed at NATO's military headquarters in Belgium and logistics hubs in Poland and Romania. Russia has repeatedly condemned the increase in Western military support for Ukraine, warning that it risks escalating the conflict into a wider war.

By Vafa Guliyeva