Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
A statement issued by NATO headquarters in Brussels this morning said that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will attend a session of the virtual Ukrainian Ministerial Defense Contact Group today, March 15, 2023.
The meeting is hosted by the US Secretary of Defense, Mr. Lloyd Austin, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley.
The NATO statement indicated that more information about the meeting could be obtained from the Pentagon.
Hours before the meeting, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin discussed with his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksiy Reznikov the priorities of the Ukrainian defense contact group that will be held today, Wednesday.
A statement on the US Department of Defense website stated that Austin provided an update on US security assistance efforts. On the other hand, Minister Reznikov detailed recent developments on the ground in Ukraine and the current situation on the front.
This comes as the Ukrainian military leadership unanimously agreed on the need to continue defending Bakhmut in the east of the country and inflicting the largest amount of losses on the Russian forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday evening in his daily nightly speech. Kiev forces are incurring heavy losses in defending the city, which is an important urban center in Donetsk, which the Kremlin announced its annexation a year ago, while the Wagner Group said that Ukraine is strengthening its forces to launch a counterattack and implement a plan to repel his forces that surround Bakhmut.