NATO Faces 'Very Real' Arms Shortages Due to Ukraine Conflict, Aims to Fill Gap, US Envoy Says

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Members of NATO face “very” real” arms shortages due to the conflict in Ukraine, and the alliance is working with the military-industrial complex on filling these gaps, US Permanent Representative to NATO Julianne Smith said on Tuesday.

“That effort is focused on declining stockpiles across the NATO alliance for a country like Estonia that has given an enormous amount of security assistance to Ukraine. They're facing some very real shortfalls, and they're not alone. We see that across the Alliance,” Smith said at in remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Members of the alliance are discussing the issue among themselves and with representative of the defense industry, she added. “They meet with industry. They're also trying to look at things like multinational buys, pool purchases,” she said.

Earlier this month, an American media reported that twenty of NATO’s 30 members have exhausted their potential in terms of weapon supplies to Ukraine. When Russia started its special military operation in Ukraine in February, stockpiles for many NATO countries were only about half of what they were supposed to be, one NATO official told the newspaper.Western countries have been providing Kiev with humanitarian, military and financial aid amid Russia’s operation.

Moscow has denounced the flow of weapons to Ukraine from its Western allies, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov having stressed that any cargo containing weapons for Ukraine would become a legitimate target for Russia.