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15-05-2023
BERLIN: Germany will provide Ukraine with additional military aid worth almost $3bn, including tanks, anti-aircraft systems and ammunition, the government announced ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s arrival in Berlin.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Saturday that Berlin wanted to show, with its latest military aid package worth 2.7bn euros ($2.95bn), “that Germany is serious in its support” for Ukraine.
“Germany will provide all the help it can, as long as it takes,” he said.
Though initially slow to provide military aid to Kyiv, Germany has since become one of the biggest suppliers of arms to Ukraine, crucially giving the green light for the delivery of modern battle tanks in the form of its own Leopard 1 and 2 models, along with sophisticated anti-aircraft systems needed to fend off drone and missile attacks.
The new military aid package, first reported by German weekly Der Spiegel, includes 30 Leopard 1 A5 tanks, 20 Marder armoured personnel carriers, more than 100 combat vehicles, 18 self-propelled Howitzers, 200 reconnaissance drones, four IRIS-T SLM anti-aircraft systems and other air defence equipment.
Germany’s support comes as Ukrainian military commanders say their troops have recaptured significant territory from Russian forces near the destroyed eastern city of Bakhmut, which has become the symbolic epicentre of the struggle between Kyiv and Moscow where their forces have fought for months in bloody urban warfare.
Zelenskyy confirmed his arrival in Germany early on Sunday his first visit since Russia launched its invasion last year in a tweet.
“Already in Berlin,” Zelenskyy wrote in a tweet. “Weapons. Powerful package. Air defense. Reconstruction. EU. NATO. Security.”
Zelenskyy travelled to Berlin after meeting several Italian leaders and Pope Francis in Italy on Saturday. A German Luftwaffe jet flew Zelenskyy to the German capital from Rome.
The Ukrainian leader spent 40 minutes with the 86-year-old pontiff at the Vatican after earlier meeting Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
“I am very grateful to him for his personal attention to the tragedy of millions of Ukrainians,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram after his audience with the pope. He said they had also discussed the fate of “tens of thousands of children” that Kyiv says were deported to Russia, as well as his plans for peace. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
