Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up BRUSSELS, Sept 9 (Reuters) – NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged allies on Friday to supply Kyiv with winter equipment such as clothing, tents and generators to enable Ukrainian troops to continue fighting the Russian invasion in the cold season. Average winter temperatures are below freezing for much of the country and it is not uncommon for temperatures to drop to minus 15 degrees Celsius. “Winter is coming, it’s going to be difficult, and so we have to continue to supply weapons and ammunition, but also winter clothes, tents, generators and all the special equipment needed for the winter,” Stoltenberg told reporters after the meeting. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Brussels. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up “Because the size of the Ukrainian military has just increased so much, they need more of this kind of winter equipment, and NATO is particularly focused on how we can provide tens of thousands of, for example, winter uniforms,” ​​Stoltenberg added. On Friday, fast-advancing Ukrainian troops were closing in on the main railway supplying Russian forces in the east of the country, after part of Russia’s front line collapsed in the most dramatic shift in the momentum of the war since its first weeks. read more It was the first lightning advance of its kind reported by both sides in months, in a war characterized mostly by fierce frontline fighting since Russia abandoned its ill-fated assault on the capital Kyiv in March. Stoltenberg called on NATO allies to increase defense production, as well as stockpile their own, so they can deliver more weapons to Kyiv. “We are now in close contact with the defense industry, with funds … to ensure that we now ramp up production, that we replenish stocks,” he said. “This is also about making sure we have the weapons, the ammunition, the capabilities for our own deterrence and defense,” he stressed. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up Reporting by Sabine Siebold Editing by Tomasz Janowski Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.