NATO takes over coordination of military aid to Kyiv from the United States

(Patria) - NATO has taken over the coordination of Western military aid to Ukraine from the United States as planned, a source said on Tuesday, in a move seen as aimed at protecting the support mechanism from NATO skeptics, newly elected US President Donald Trump.

The move, which followed months of delay, gives NATO a more direct role in the war against the Russian invasion, without being enough to engage its forces, Reuters reported.

Diplomats, however, acknowledge that the handover to NATO could have a limited effect given that the US under Trump could still deal a major blow to Ukraine by reducing its support, as it is the dominant force in the alliance and provides most of the weapons to Kyiv.

Trump, who will take office in January, has said he wants to end the war in Ukraine quickly, but not how he wants to do it. He has long criticized the scale of US financial and military aid to Ukraine.

The headquarters of the new NATO Ukraine mission, called NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU), is located at Clay Barracks, a US base in the German city of Wiesbaden.

A person familiar with the matter told Reuters that it is now fully operational. No public reason for the delay was given.

NATO's military headquarters SHAPE announced that its Ukraine mission is beginning to take over responsibilities from the US and international organizations.

"The work of NSATU... is designed to put Ukraine in a position of strength, which puts NATO in a position of strength to keep its billion people in Europe and North America safe and prosperous," said US Army General Christopher G. Cavoli, Supreme Allied Commander Europe. "This is a good day for Ukraine and a good day for NATO."

The US-led Ramstein Group, an ad hoc coalition of about fifty nations named after the US air base in Germany where it first met, has coordinated Western military supplies to Kyiv.

Trump threatened to leave NATO during his first presidential term and demanded that allies spend three percent of their national GDP on their military, compared to NATO's target of two percent.

Meanwhile, the outgoing Biden administration in Washington is trying to deliver as much weaponry as possible to Kyiv due to fears that Trump might reduce the supply of military equipment to Ukraine.

NSATU will have about 700 personnel, including troops stationed at NATO's SHAPE military headquarters in Belgium and at logistics hubs in Poland and Romania.