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Associated Press

Agence France-Presse

New Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte visited Ukraine on Thursday in his first official trip since taking office and pledging continued support for Kyiv.
Rutte met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv as air raid sirens twice went off in the Ukrainian capital.
The new head of Nato vowed on Tuesday to help shore up Western support for Ukraine, which has been fighting Russia’s full-scale invasion since February 2022.
Rutte expressed confidence that he can work with whomever is elected president of the United States, the alliance’s most powerful member, in November. That could be a key moment for Ukraine’s effort to ensure continuing Western support.


Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has welcomed Rutte’s appointment.
“Ukraine’s course toward Nato membership is irreversible, and we remain committed to that goal,” he said on Tuesday.
Rutte’s government in the Netherlands was one of Kyiv’s most important European backers, a major driving force pushing for advanced F-16 fighter jets to be delivered to Kyiv.
Rutte was also prime minister when Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine in 2014, killing 298 people, the majority of them Dutch.
He said the crash “changed my personal view of the world” and made him all the more determined to support Ukraine, “for their security and ours.”
But it is Nato members, not the alliance itself, that calls the shots on supplies of much-needed military hardware and ammunition to Kyiv.
Zelensky has said that without Western aid Ukraine has no chance of winning the war.
He has also chided delays in shipments and criticised restrictions that he says limit Kyiv’s ability to hit back.
Ukraine is currently pushing the United States to allow its army to fire Western-supplied missiles on military targets inside Russia.
Cautious to avoid a possible escalation, Washington has been hesitant to give the green light.




Ukraine faces a critical next few months on the battlefield.
Russian forces have been grinding through the east for most of 2024 and are targeting the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk.
With Moscow’s troops less than 10km away (six miles), its fall would severely hamper Ukrainian supply routes and defensive positions in the Donetsk region.
The country also faces possibly its most difficult winter of the war.
Russian strikes have battered Ukraine’s energy grid and destroyed swathes of generating capacity, with Kyiv bracing for blackouts that could plunge millions into darkness, cutting off heating and hot water in sub-zero temperatures.
Meanwhile the possible return of aid-sceptic Donald Trump to the White House has raised questions about how long Ukraine’s most important backer will carry on supplying and bankrolling its fight against Moscow.


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Ukraine war

Nato’s new chief Mark Rutte visits Ukraine in first trip since taking office

Mark Rutte, the new head of Nato, has vowed to help shore up Western support for Ukraine. Photo: AFP

Nato’s new chief Mark Rutte visits Ukraine in first trip since taking office

Rutte pledged continued support for Ukraine in its war against Russia