What is NATO's plan for supporting Ukraine and why the Alliance hasn't approved funding

Late last week, NATO defence ministers prepared decisions to ensure long-term and predictable support for Ukraine.

Some of their intentions were even approved. The outcome of the Brussels meeting was a document with the ambitious title "Operational plan to enhance support for Ukraine."

However, the plan to finance Ukraine with the annual aid of 40 billion euros by NATO countries was unexpectedly blocked by a country usually considered a loyal friend of Kyiv. Of course, this is not Hungary.

Read more about why Ukraine has received such a setback from an allied state and whether it will be possible to unlock the adoption of the financial aid plan in the article by Iryna Kutielieva, a European Pravda journalist – NATO prepares for Trump. How the Alliance wants to change assistance to Ukraine and who opposes it.

The six-month delay in approving US aid, the unimplemented EU plan to produce one million shells and the risks of Trump's return to the White House... Over the past months, Ukraine has faced difficulties in supplying Western weapons and the necessary funding to fight Russian aggression.

In this regard, in April, Secretary-General Stoltenberg began promoting the idea of providing "reliable and predictable" security support to Ukraine in the long term.

Stoltenberg has proposed a special plan – Operational plan to enhance support for Ukraine.

According to his idea, NATO will take on international coordination of weapons supplies and training for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. At the same time, the head of the Alliance clarified that NATO will not take over from the United States the responsibility for Ramstein – this format will remain.

Instead, NATO will duplicate another American mechanism.

This refers to the Pentagon's Security Assistance Group-Ukraine (SAG-U), which operates at the European headquarters of the US Armed Forces in Wiesbaden, Germany. SAG-U, headed by General Christopher Cavoli (Commander of US Forces in Europe), compiles packages of military aid to Ukraine, spare parts, provides repair capabilities and coordinates the training of Ukrainian servicemen.

But now this group will have a "NATO twin."

Moreover, the new command structures of the Alliance, responsible for supplying weapons to Ukraine, will also be headed by General Cavoli, and it will be located in Wiesbaden as well.

Logistics hubs will be created in the eastern part of the Alliance under the leadership of this "twin."

The new system will help ensure the stability of security supplies for Ukraine, according to the Secretary-General. "A stronger NATO role will help Ukraine to get the predictability it needs," he concludes.

At the same time, NATO defence ministers were unable to agree on adopting long-term financial commitments to aid Ukraine.

The proposed amount of 40 billion euros corresponds to the current level of support for Ukraine. However, Stoltenberg wanted to make this the minimum level of assistance to Kyiv.

The proposal included adopting a decision that the minimum contribution of each country would be proportional to the size of its GDP (approximately half of this amount would still need to be provided by the United States).

However, this plan could not be approved. The obstacle was Italy's disagreement. For Italy, these investments are too large.

According to Stoltenberg, NATO countries "continue to agree on a position" on this issue until the summit in Washington.