The German Ministry of Defense announced this Saturday that a new military aid package worth 2 billion 700 million euros has been delivered to Ukraine.
In the aid shipment, 30 Leopard 1 tanks, 15 Gepard autonomous anti-aircraft armored vehicles, four IRIS-T-SLM air defense systems, 20 Marder armored vehicles, 200 reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicles; One hundred light APC vehicles, one hundred logistics support vehicles and ammunition, ‘Der Spiegel said in the last hours.
According to the ministry, the new package nearly doubles Germany’s total arms aid to Ukraine since the start of the war in February 2022. The German government had previously approved an arms shipment of 2.75 billion euros.
“With this valuable contribution of urgently needed military material, we show once again that Germany takes its support seriously,” said German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.
“Unfortunately, the end of the war is not in sight. Therefore, Germany will do all it can to help as long as it is needed.”
According to the report, this aid shipment was designed as a symbol of Germany’s solidarity with Ukraine, in parallel with the awarding of the Aachen Charlemagne Prize to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who will visit Germany this Sunday to attend the ceremony.
One of the first reactions of Kiev to the announcement, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dimitro Kuleba called for this aid to be delivered to the country as soon as possible.
“Ukraine always needs everything as quickly as possible,” said the minister, within the framework of the second day of the informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Stockholm (Sweden), which he attended as a guest.
Borrell wants more ammo
The EU’s top diplomatic official, Josep Borrell, applauded this new shipment and reminded that Ukraine now needs ammunition to advance in the war with Russia: “It’s clear we need to speed up assistance,” he reassured this Saturday regarding the meeting with Kuleba.
“He just gave me a number: in the Bakhmut region, where the conflict is raging, Ukraine needs about 1,000 artillery shells a day to get an idea of the intensity of the conflict and the firepower of Russia and how the Ukrainians can resist. This is constant and systematic bombardment,” he explained.
Borrell celebrated some “very good news” about the German aid package, especially after learning of the shipment of long-range shells, and encouraged other countries to “do the same.”
“Here we need to talk about specific capabilities, the range of ammunition, because the Russians are bombing from afar, so the Ukrainians should have the ability to reach the same distance. Any type of ammunition will not help them,” Borrell said. . .