West gearing up to help Ukraine for ‘long haul’, says US defence secretary

Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, has said the west was gearing up to help Ukraine for "the long haul" and would take steps to boost rearmament to help the embattled country following a meeting of defence ministers in Germany.

Politicians present also discussed coordinating future arms supplies on top of $5bn (£3.9bn) already committed, but the growing effort has already prompted Russia to accuse the west of engaging in "a proxy war" by arming Ukraine against Moscow.

"We have an important session today on the long term support for Ukraine's defence including what that will take from our defence industrial bases," Austin said after a 40-country meeting at the Ramstein airbase in south-west Germany.

The secretary added that that would mean "dealing with the tremendous demand that we're facing for munitions and weapons platforms" and "redoubling our common efforts to strengthen Ukraine's military for the long haul".

Western allies have been stepping up their arms supply to Ukraine, in response to pleas from the country's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to turn the tide in the fighting, leading to escalating Russian criticism as the war continues.

Late on Monday, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, accused Nato of being "engaged in a war with Russia through a proxy and is arming that proxy" in response to a question about whether the current situation could be compared to the Cuban missile crisis that nearly caused a nuclear war.

In response, Austin said on Tuesday that both Ukraine and the west would "do everything in our power" to ensure the war does not "spin out of control". He added: "Bluster about the use of nuclear, the possible use of nuclear weapons is very dangerous and unhelpful. Nobody wants to see a nuclear war, nobody can win it."