The armaments are coming from all over, as nations opt to help Ukraine in its efforts to slow and ultimately fend off a Moscow invasion:

The Dutch are sending rocket launchers for air defense, The New York Times reported on Wednesday. Likewise, it said, the Estonians are sending Javelin antitank missiles. The Poles and Latvians are sending Stinger surface-to-air missiles (as is Germany and even the U.S., it's been reported).

Meanwhile, the Czechs are providing machine guns, sniper rifles, pistols and plenty of ammo for them, the Times reported. 

Even formerly neutral countries are joining the effort as condemnation of the invasion by Russian President Vladimir Putin grows. Sweden and Finland are sending weapons. And Germany, as noted, is providing Ukrainians with some of those Stingers used against Russia in their long conflict withj Afghanistan, along with other varieties of shoulder-launched rockets.

That means that with the invasion ongoing and NATO walkking a fine line between a tough defensive and supportive posture and its direct involvement in the Ukraine conflict, some 20 nations are backing Kyiv with arms. Most, the Times said, are members of NATO and the European Union. 

Meanwhile, as has been widely reported, NATO nations including the U.S. have been positiioning equipment and as thousands of troops within members states that share borders with Russia and its invasion ally Belarus, partly as reassurance and partly in a bid to deter Russia from escalating the conflict beyond the borders of Ukraine. 

“European security and defense has evolved more in the last six days than in the last two decades,” Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Union’s executive arm, asserted in a speech to the European Parliament this week, said the Times.

But this effort by NATO and its allies to help Ukraine and firm up its identity as an important voice in this conflict comes with risks, i.e. the risk of encouraging a wider war and retribution strikes by Putin and his forces against his European and American nemeses.

Putin has already railed against NATO, seeing it as a threat and an alliance looking to draw Ukraine into its orbit and out of Russia's. Last month he  raised the level of nuclear preparedness for his country, a warning to Europe and the U.S. about interfering in Moscow's affairs. Though U.S. President Joe Biden and others have urged calm and sought to minimize concerns about nuclear engagement over Ukraine, there are some analysts who see Putin as increasingly strident in tone and isolated from advisers, which they fear raises the risk that he would use nukes after all.

This week, the U.S. opted to postpone a nuclear missile test to avoid raising the temperature of the Ukraine situation.

The Times article itself contained some cautionary language: "World wars have started over smaller conflicts, and the proximity of the war to NATO allies carries the danger that it could draw in other parties in unexpected ways."

Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary-general, said last week, There must be no space for miscalculation or misunderstanding. We will do what it takes to defend every inch of NATO territory.”

For the moment, though, the fight remains within Ukraine and other nations are showing restraint in not putting "boots on the ground" there. Their support is material and financial at this point.