U.S. and NATO see Ukraine in urgent need of more arms

By Sabine Siebold and Andrew Gray

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Ukraine urgently needs more military aid and Western support will not falter, the United States and NATO pledged on Tuesday, in the face of a new Russian offensive ahead of the first anniversary of the start of the war.

Western defence chiefs were meeting in Brussels to discuss new arms provisions to Kyiv, which is pleading for greater firepower, and maintenance of existing supplies including shells whose production can hardly keep pace with the war.

"Ukraine has urgent requirements to help it meet this crucial moment in the course of the war," U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said at a meeting of the so-called Ramstein group of allies of Ukraine.

Austin said he expected Ukrainian forces to conduct an offensive of their own in the spring, and Kyiv's allies were working to ensure they had the armour, firepower and the logistics to make it effective.

"We believe that there'll be a window of opportunity for them to exercise initiative," Austin said.

"The Kremlin is still betting it can wait us out, but one year on we are as united as ever. That shared resolve will help sustain Ukraine's momentum in the crucial weeks ahead."

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg gave the same message about Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion.

"We see no signs that President Putin is preparing for peace. What we see is the opposite, he is preparing for more war, for new offensives and new attacks," he told reporters.

Nevertheless, the top U.S. general, Mark Milley, said Russia had already lost in the eyes of the world.

"Russia is now a global pariah and the world remains inspired by Ukrainian bravery and resilience. In short, Russia has lost: they've lost strategically, operationally and tactically," Milley, chair of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters.

NATO defence ministers met with Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov after the Ramstein group gathering.

The alliance plans to increase targets for stockpiling ammunition as Kyiv is burning through shells much faster than the West can produce them, leaving stocks badly depleted.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius called on the national defence industry to ramp up production capacity.

He said Berlin had signed contracts with arms maker Rheinmetall to restart production of ammunition for the Gepard anti-aircraft guns it has delivered to Kyiv.

It had been trying for months to find new munitions for the guns, which its own military decommissioned in 2010.

(Reporting by Reporting by Sabine Siebold, Bart Meijer, Benoit Van Overstraeten, Andrew Gray, Charlotte Van Campenhout, Tassilo Hummel;Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Andrew Cawthorne and Mike Harrison)