GERMANY will send 2,000 additional anti-tank weapons to Ukraine to replenish the country’s depleting arsenal and bolster its defences against the Russian military operation.
The Ukrainian forces have already received 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger-type surface-to-air missile launchers from the German army.
Germany has also provided around 500 Strela surface-to-air missiles out of 2,700 promised. Bureaucratic hurdles and delays in arm deliveries sparked criticism from Ukrainian authorities.
A parliamentary source, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed that the 2,000 additional anti-tank weapons would be sent to Ukraine.
‘We are one of the biggest suppliers of arms to Ukraine in the current situation,’ German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told parliament on Wednesday.
‘This does not make us proud, but this is what we must do now to help Ukraine,’ she added, saying that the rest of the weapons promised to Ukraine were ‘on their way’.
According to Baerbock, ‘the German government has been in talks with companies to purchase more weapons and further shipments to Ukraine can be possible in the coming days.’
Before Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, Berlin had rejected supplying arms to Kiev, and also turned down requests from allies to send German-made weapons to the country.
On February, Germany reversed a historic policy of not sending weapons to conflict zones, saying the Russian military action in Ukraine was an epochal moment that undermined the entire post-World War II order across Europe.
‘The Russian invasion of Ukraine marks a turning point,’ German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a statement. ‘It threatens our entire post-war order. In this situation, it is our duty to do our utmost to support Ukraine in defending itself against Vladimir Putin’s invading army. Germany stands closely by Ukraine’s side.’
Britain will also provide Ukraine with about 6,000 new missiles and almost 40 million dollars to support the BBC’s coverage in the region and pay Ukrainian soldiers and pilots.
‘We cannot and will not stand by while Russia grinds Ukraine’s towns and cities into dust,’ Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a statement unveiling the new support package.
‘The United Kingdom will work with our allies to step up military and economic support to Ukraine, strengthening their defences as they turn the tide in this fight.’
In recent days, Ukraine was said to be quickly running out of the weapons it needs to hold off Russian forces – and has called on France and Germany to send more arms.
The military only has two weeks before it uses up its supply of anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles, foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba reportedly said last week.
Russia’s State Duma speaker has urged the US and NATO to stop sending weapons and mercenaries to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, a Russian-drafted call for aid access and civilian protection in Ukraine failed at the UN Security Council last Wednesday.
Russia and China voted yes and the remaining 13 members abstained from the vote.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused those who abstained on Wednesday of doing so ‘for political reasons’.
To be adopted, a Security Council resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by Russia, China, Britain, France or the United States.
- As NATO and Russia continue a dispute over Ukraine’s eastern region of Donbass, a Russian military official has said modern weapons will be delivered to Ukraine under the guise of NATO’s annual military drill in the strategic Black Sea.
Major-General Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defence Ministry, said on Wednesday that the United States and its allies were using the Russian military presence on the border as an excuse to arm Ukraine with advanced weaponry.
‘While Western countries keep accusing Russia of allegedly building up the military potential at its southwestern borders, the Ukrainian Defence Ministry and the United States Joint Forces Command intend to stage the joint exercise Sea Breeze in the European zone with assistance of NATO countries on 28 June – 10 July,’ Konashenkov was quoted as saying.
According to the Russian Defence Ministry, about 4,000 NATO military personnel will be deployed as well as 40 navy ships, boats, and auxiliary vessels, 30 aerial units, and over 100 vehicles and armoured units in the Black Sea.
The main participants of the exercise would be Ukraine, the United States, Canada, Britain, and Turkey, among other partner states.
Special Forces from various NATO countries will also be deployed in Ukraine as part of the drill.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Konashenkov said, ‘Although the exercise is classified as a sea one, the scope of its military activity will go far beyond the Ukrainian part of the Black Sea.
‘The Russian Defence Ministry will closely follow preparations for and the actual Ukrainian-American exercise Sea Breeze involving NATO countries. If necessary, the Defence Ministry will respond adequately to safeguard the military security of the Russian Federation.’
Russia has warned that that any attempts spearheaded by the West to start a new military conflict in Ukraine’s war-torn east would culminate in the destruction of Ukraine.
- Former president Dmitry Medvedev says sanctions won’t sway Russia as the West cranks up pressure on Moscow and the conflict with Ukraine enters the second month.
Medvedev, President Vladimir Putin’s predecessor and deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, was quoted as saying on Friday that it was ‘foolish’ to believe that Western sanctions against Russian businesses could have any effect on Moscow.
‘The sanctions will only consolidate Russian society and not cause popular discontent with the authorities,’ Medvedev asserted.
‘Let us ask ourselves: can any of these major businessmen have even the tiniest quantum of influence on the position of the country’s leadership?’ Medvedev added. ‘I openly tell you: no, no way.’
The former president said opinion polls showed that three-fourths of Russians supported the Kremlin’s decision to carry out a military operation in Ukraine and even more supported Putin.
The Kremlin said Russia’s exclusion from the G20 grouping of major economies – sought by US President Joe Biden – would not be ‘fatal’.
‘As far as the G20 format is concerned, it’s important,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. ‘But in the current situation, when most of the participants in this format are in a state of economic war with us, nothing fatal will happen.’
Western governments have slapped unprecedented sanctions against Moscow, but stopped short of getting directly involved in the conflict.
The US and the EU announced a task force on Friday aimed at reducing Europe’s reliance on Russian fossil fuels.
The initiative being unveiled by President Biden and EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen will see the US strive to help supply Europe with an extra 15 billion cubic metres of liquefied natural gas this year, a statement said.
About 10% of EU gas needs are met by domestic production. Russia typically supplies 41% of the rest of the bloc’s needs, equivalent to 155 billion cubic metres, mostly through pipelines and about 15 billion cubic metres in the form of LNG.
Der Spiegel magazine said Germany seeks to halve imports of Russian oil by mid-year while reducing its dependence on the nation’s gas and coal.
Russian gas will amount to as little as 30% of imports by the end of the year, down from more than half currently, the magazine said, adding the aim is to reduce oil imports almost to nothing by then.
- A top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed that the spy agencies of Ukraine and Israel were ‘cooperating very closely’ even as he complained that Kiev had not received the security assistance it had requested from Israel.
‘Our intelligence is cooperating very closely with Israeli intelligence,’ Andriy Yermak told reporters during an online briefing.
A Hebrew newspaper also reported that some former special fighters of the Israeli military had entered Ukraine to train militants to fight Russian forces.
The ongoing crisis in Ukraine has taken hostility between Russia and the US to breaking point.
The Kremlin said on Friday that US talk of Russia possibly resorting to chemical weapons in Ukraine was a tactic to divert attention away from awkward questions for Washington.
Peskov told a conference call with reporters that the military would submit proposals to President Putin on how Russia should strengthen its defences in response to NATO beefing up its eastern flank.
Russia also said it had ‘never’ violated international legislation after Zelensky accused Moscow of using phosphorus bombs in his country.
Meanwhile, a senior official of Russia’s State Duma said biological laboratories in Ukraine funded by the US have violated the United Nations Biological Weapons Convention and generated irreversible consequences, which requires thorough investigation to uncover the truth.
Irina Yarovaya, deputy chairwoman of Russian parliament’s lower house, accused the US of ‘secretly developing biological technologies in the territories of other sovereign nations, and prohibiting these nations from disclosing the nature of these experiments to their people’.