NATO's Jens Stoltenberg urges allies to step up delivery of weapons to Ukraine

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) secretary general Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday (Mar 14) said that the member nations must step up sending arms to Ukraine asKyiv is running out of ammunition in its war against Russia.

Stoltenberg's comment underlines the current state of the war, as he said that the NATO allies had the capacity to provide more to Ukraine but needed to show the political will to do so.

During a press conference, Stoltenberg said, "NATO allies are not providing Ukraine with enough ammunition and that has consequences on the battlefield every day."

He mentioned that Russians able to dominate the Ukrainians is a huge challenge and shortage of ammunition is one of the reasons why Moscow has been able to make advances on the battlefield over the last weeks.

"Therefore it is an urgent need for allies to make the decisions necessary to step up, provide more ammunition to Ukraine," he added.

Several ground reports have claimed that Ukraine's military has recently been grappling with significantly reduced weapons supplies from the West more than two years after the war started.

Watch:Russia-Ukraine War: Ukrainian drones target Russian oil facilities

NATO chief on Russian election

Stoltenberg further added that any attempt to organise Russian elections in occupied regions of Ukraine would be illegal.

He said, "(Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin has held power in Russia for decades. No one expects Russia's elections this week to bring any change in the Kremlin. And of course, Russia's attempts to organise any part of an election in occupied regions of Ukraine are completely illegal, violating international law."

President Vladimir Putin is in all probability expectedto win a new six-year term in the March 15-17 vote. This would enable him to overtake Josef Stalin to become Russia's longest-serving leader.

Meanwhile, Kyiv has slammed the polls withUkrainian Foreign Ministryon Thursday saying that Russia's staging of elections in occupied territories of Ukraine is illegal and void. The ministry urged international partners not to recognise the results.

It further said that the electoral campaign inDonetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, all partially controlled by Russia, as well as Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, was another demonstration of Moscow's "continued flagrant disregard for international law norms and principles".

(With inputs from agencies)