NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks on the sidelines of an in-person Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at Ramstein Air Base, southwestern Germany, on April 21, 2023. – The United States are hosting the meeting to discuss further support for Ukraine after President Volodymyr Zelensky pushed Western allies to send more fighter jets and long-range missiles. Representatives from around 50 countries gather at the US Ramstein Air Base to coordinate their backing for Kyiv, as battles with Russia rage in the east of the country. (Photo by ANDRE PAIN / AFP)

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that Ukraine had an “urgent, critical need for more air defence”, at a G7 foreign ministers’ meeting on the Italian island of Capri.

While NATO allies had made “encouraging” recent commitments on military support, he said: “We should have given them more earlier.”

He was speaking to reporters ahead of a working session on Ukraine, also attended by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

Ukraine has struggled on the battlefield for months, outgunned and outnumbered by Russian forces amid a shortage of Western military aid.

Stoltenberg said there had been “important, encouraging signs” of new military support from NATO allies, including the scheduling of a US Congressional vote this weekend on a long-stalled $61-billion-euro package of aid.

“It’s of vital importance that NATO allies sustain and step up their support. We will focus today on air defence. There’s an urgent, critical need for more air defence,” Stoltenberg said.

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