NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has called on alliance members and other Western partners to provide more support for Ukraine as cold weather looms.
Speaking after a meeting with Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs at the Adazi military base on Thursday, Rutte warned that Russian president Vladimir Putin “will use winter as a weapon.”
Rutte said Russia would try to destroy Ukraine’s energy supply system: “That is why we must all increase our support for Ukraine, including air defence to protect critical infrastructure.”
In order to strengthen their own defence capabilities, NATO members would have to increase their defence spending and boost arms production, Rutte said. Rinkēvičs also called on NATO partners to spend more on defence, specifically advocating a figure of 2.5 or 3% of gross domestic product (GDP). The official NATO target for military spending is currently 2%.
Rutte and Rinkēvičs watched a manoeuvre of the multinational NATO brigade stationed in Latvia, which was training together at full strength for the first time. Some 3,500 soldiers from 13 NATO countries took part in the Resolute Warrior exercise. Latvia shares a border with Russia and its close ally Belarus to the east.
Former governor admits Russian troops looted border region
The former governor of the Russian border region of Kursk on Thursday admitted that soldiers sent by Moscow to defend the region have looted homes.
“There is evidence of looting by both civilians and the military,” said Roman Starovoit, who has since become Russia’s transport minister, at a meeting with residents of the Glushkovo district, which borders Ukraine.
A video clip from a local news portal on Telegram showed that the admission – rare among the Moscow leadership – was met with applause from the audience. Residents of the region had repeatedly complained about break-ins at their abandoned homes.
In their surprise counteroffensive this summer, Ukrainian troops captured part of the Kursk region. Russian troops are now trying to push the Ukrainian army back out of the country.
The Russian state news agency TASS has accused Ukrainian soldiers of looting in the villages they had conquered, citing the village of Glushkovo as an example. But this village was never under Ukrainian control.
Two elderly women killed in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine
Two women have been killed in attacks by Ukrainian forces in the Russian-held eastern region of Luhansk, according to the occupation authorities.
On a road near the city of Lysychansk, Ukrainian forces attacked a car carrying civilians with a drone, the local administration wrote on Telegram. An elderly woman was killed and a man was injured.
In Lysychansk itself, two houses were destroyed by shelling from the Ukrainian armed forces, the authority added, killing another elderly woman.
The claims could not be immediately independently verified. Ukraine has emphasized in the past that it does not target civilians.
Before the war, Lysychansk was a large city with around 100,000 inhabitants. It was taken by Russian troops in the summer of 2022 after heavy fighting.
According to the occupation administration, at least 13 people were injured by shelling in the centre of the city of Horlivka in the neighbouring Donetsk region.
Ukraine has been defending itself against the Russian war of aggression for almost 1,000 days and is attempting to recapture its occupied territories.
Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics (R) speaks to soldiers together with Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte. They visited a maneuver of the multinational NATO brigade stationed in Latvia, which is currently being formed and trained together at full strength for the first time. Alexander Welscher/dpa
