NATO takes over Ukraine aid coordination as Trump’s return stirs concerns over US support

In a move widely seen as aiming to safeguard the support mechanism against NATO skeptic Donald Trump, NATO has officially taken over the coordination of Western military aid to Ukraine from the United States, Reuters reported.

This move comes after several months of delay, allowing NATO to play a more direct role in the Russia-Ukraine war without deploying its forces. However, diplomats note that this handover may have limited impact, as the US under Trump remains the alliance’s dominant power and the primary source of arms to Ukraine.

Trump has criticised the scale of US aid to Ukraine and has vowed to end the war swiftly, though his specific strategy remains unclear.

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

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A person familiar with the matter told Reuters it was now fully operational. No public reason has been given for the delays.

In the past, the US-led Ramstein group, an ad hoc coalition of some 50 nations named after a US air base in Germany where it first met, has coordinated Western military supplies to Kyiv.

Meanwhile, the outgoing administration in Washington is scrambling to ship as many weapons as possible to Kyiv amid fears that Trump may cut down on deliveries of military hardware to Ukraine.

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Trump threatened to quit NATO during his first term as president and demanded allies must spend 3% of national GDP on their militaries, compared with NATO’s target of 2%.

NSATU is set to have a total strength of some 700 personnel, including troops stationed at NATO’s military headquarters SHAPE in Belgium and at logistics hubs in Poland and Romania.

Russia has condemned increases in Western military aid to Ukraine as risking a wider war.