At NATO, Zelenskyy secures more Ukraine aid as allies balance support for Israel

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine made a surprise visit to NATO headquarters Wednesday, urging the military alliance to maintain its flow of weapons to his country for its war against Russia, even as much of the West turns its attention to the brutal outbreak of violence in Israel.

Top NATO officials sought to reassure Zelenskyy, pledging more than $2 billion in additional military aid to be delivered before Ukraine’s winter sets in.

“Your fight is our fight, your security is our security, and your values are our values,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said at the start of two days of meetings among the alliance’s defense chiefs. “And we will stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes.”

But Zelenskyy later said that “of course, everybody’s afraid” that Western assistance would dwindle as the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip continues.

“Who knows how it will be,” Zelenskyy said at an appearance with Belgium’s prime minister after meeting with top defense officials from NATO members. “I think nobody knows.”

Zelenskyy’s visit to the military alliance’s headquarters in Brussels was a stark reminder of the 19-month-old war on NATO’s doorstep, amid concerns that the conflict in Israel, which broke out this past weekend, could eventually divert resources from Ukraine.

An initial package of weapons shipped directly from the United States arrived in Israel on Wednesday morning, according to video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, by the Israeli Defense Ministry.

Zelenskyy said he was counting on Ukraine’s strong relations with the United States and the European Union to ensure that assistance to his country would continue. Still, he urged nations to rally behind the Israeli people, and compared the assault by Hamas to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Senior NATO officials privately conceded that Ukraine might have cause for concern, given the violence in Israel and the budget fight in the U.S. Congress that threatens US war funding.

At least some of the American weapons flow could dry up in a matter of months if the money is not approved quickly, according to one senior US official who spoke to journalists in Brussels on condition of anonymity to discuss the internal debate more frankly.

“In the immediate term right now, we can continue to support, with the authorities and appropriations we have, Israel and Ukraine,” John Kirby, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, told journalists in Washington. “But we’re certainly running out of runway.”

But the US official and other experts also said that a diversion of weapons to Israel at Ukraine’s expense is not expected to happen in the near future, since the two countries use different kinds of air defenses to protect their respective territories.

And at least eight NATO states pledged additional reinforcements — including air defense systems, 155 mm ammunition and tanks — to speed to Ukraine as the two days of meetings began among the alliance’s defense ministers.

At NATO, Zelenskyy said he was counting on the West to supply more air defenses, long-range missiles and artillery to help his country “survive this next winter.”

He also repeated his assertion that President Vladimir Putin of Russia seeks to foment chaos and conflict in the Middle East to undermine support for Ukraine, noting that Moscow still has enough weapons, personnel and other resources “to incite conflicts and turn that into full scale tragedies.”

“This is happening in the Sahel,” he said, referring to a region in sub-Saharan Africa, “and it can happen even more painfully in Israel and in the Middle East as a whole. We must not allow this to happen. We can prevent it.”

Putin, for his part, assailed the United States for a second consecutive day, saying it was inflaming another international crisis with the Israeli-Hamas war. Speaking at an energy conference Wednesday, Putin accused Washington of acting recklessly in the Middle East by sidestepping international efforts to mediate between the sides and said it had failed to address fundamental Palestinian grievances.

The United States has committed about $44 billion in weapons and military support to Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February 2022 and on Wednesday announced it would ship more air defense missiles, artillery, rockets and counter-drone equipment in a new package worth about $200 million. This week it delivered the remainder of 31 M1 Abrams tanks the Biden administration promised to give Ukraine in January, according to Col. Martin O’Donnell, a US Army spokesperson in Europe.

“In terms of our ability to continue to support both the efforts in Ukraine and support our efforts in Israel, as well — absolutely, we can do both,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said after meeting with the other defense ministers. “And we will do both.”

Officials said the Biden administration would also step up its involvement in a coalition led by Denmark and the Netherlands to donate F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, although the warplanes are not expected to be delivered until next year at the earliest.

From Canada to Spain to Bulgaria, other allies also pledged new packages of weapons and aid.

The largest was committed by Germany, which announced Tuesday it would send about $1.1 billion in Patriot missiles and IRIS-T air defense systems, and 10 more Leopard tanks.

Most of the additional assistance — which also included donations from Britain, France and Sweden — sought to answer Ukraine’s needs to defend its skies from Russian airstrikes, and for artillery and ammunition.

NATO officials will hear Thursday from Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, in a video briefing at the close of the military alliance’s meetings this week.

For now, the air defenses that Israel may seek from the United States include Tamir interceptors — missiles that are used in Israel’s Iron Dome system. They have not been sent to Ukraine, which has depended on a mix of air defense systems that are manufactured and used in the United States and Europe.

“There is no competition between Israel and Ukraine worth mentioning for those capabilities,” said Bradley Bowman, a former US Army officer and senior military expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington research institute.

Where the needs for weapons could overlap between Ukraine and Israel, Bowman said, is in munitions and other ground warfare systems, if Israel launches a lengthy building-to-building rout of Hamas in Gaza. Ukraine’s forces have burned through thousands of munitions each day in their counteroffensive against Russia — a war of attrition that has left troops on the front lines pleading for more ammunition.

“If we see a major ground war in Gaza of extended duration, the weapons Israel needs from the US may begin to overlap with some of the weapons Ukraine needs,” Bowman said. “But a prospective competition between Ukraine and Israel for the same weapons could certainly be managed.”

At NATO, Zelenskyy again emphasized how valuable it was to have the backing of allies and urged world leaders ”to go to Israel and add their support.”

“I remember the first days of our full-scale war — it began from terroristic attacks,” he told journalists shortly after arriving Wednesday. “It was very important to not be alone.”