NATO chief pushes allies to commit to long-term Ukraine aid

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is asking the alliance's member states to make longer-tern commitments to Ukraine by guaranteeing to at least maintain - if not increase - their current level of support for the next few years.

Stoltenberg has put the total value of allies' aid over the last two years at €80 billion ($87 billion) - an average of €40 billion per year. He wants them to make a long-term commitment to maintain that, as a minimum, dpa has learned.

In the spring, Stoltenberg proposed that allies should provide €100 billion over the next five years - equivalent to €20 billion per year - via NATO. Aid from NATO countries has so far been coordinated outside of NATO structures.

But that proposal met resistance, in part because some allies prefer to continue supplying military aid outside of NATO. Another is that commitments made through NATO could be more strongly binding.