“For all member states, those who can should deliver quickly, because only then can Ukraine survive in its acute defensive struggle against Russia,” said von der Leyen of “Bild am Sonntag”. The topic continues to occupy German domestic politics.
Tension between Ukraine and Germany
Former Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) defended Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s (SPD) cautious course and clearly rejected criticism from Ukraine of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The Ukrainian ambassador, Andriy Melnyk, reacted with fresh criticism and accused Gabriel of “a policy that has been friendly to Putin for years”.
Von der Leyen expects a long war
“I don’t differentiate between heavy and light weapons. Ukraine has to get what it needs for defense and what it can handle,” von der Leyen said. The head of the commission prepared the citizens of the EU for a long military conflict. “We have to do everything we can to ensure that it ends as quickly as possible. And at the same time we have to prepare for the fact that, in the worst case, the war could last for months, even years.”
Russian attacks inflicted heavy casualties on Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged the West to supply heavy weapons to defend his country. According to Western analysts, before the war Ukraine had around 900 operational tanks and over 1,200 infantry fighting vehicles. However, Russian air raids and the fighting that had been going on for almost two months caused heavy casualties. According to Russian data, 2,290 tanks and armored fighting vehicles have been destroyed so far.
In addition, Russia specifically destroyed the tank factories in Lviv, Zhytomyr, Kyiv and Kharkiv. Kyiv therefore lacks the capacity to repair and reactivate mothballed old Soviet stock because workshops were deliberately destroyed by the Russian army. Without the support of tanks, the Ukrainian army is not in a position to go on its own offensive or to fend off the large-scale Russian attack threatening from the east.
Zelenskyj: Mariupol could have been liberated with Western tanks
Zelenskyj already raised the charge that Kyiv could have fought to free the besieged port city of Mariupol if the West had delivered tanks in time. His adviser Oleksiy Arestovych recently clearly rejected concerns that the Ukrainian soldiers could be overwhelmed with Western weapons technology. He had explained that the fighters could get used to the operation within a few days.
US guns arrived
Meanwhile, the first parts of the latest US support package of weapons and ammunition arrived in Ukraine, as the news channel CNN reported on Sunday night. Washington promised Kyiv additional weapons and ammunition worth up to $800 million (€740 million) on Wednesday, including artillery, armored vehicles and helicopters.
Ukraine demands heavy weapons from Germany
So far, Germany has supplied, among other things, Panzerfaust, anti-aircraft missiles, machine guns, but also vehicles, night vision devices and protective equipment. With a view to the expected major Russian offensive in the east of the country, Ukraine is also demanding the delivery of heavy weapons from the German government. This includes, for example, battle tanks, artillery pieces or combat helicopters.
Arms deliveries determine German domestic policy
Union politicians but also representatives of the traffic light parties of the Greens and FDP had accused German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) of hesitation. Former Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel defended the course of the chancellor and party friend in a guest article for “Spiegel”. It is true that the government can only deliver heavy weapons to Ukraine in coordination with the United States. Using the same arguments as the German Federal Chancellor, the USA very consciously weigh up what kind of military support is possible and sensible, and where the limit to active participation in the war against Russia is crossed.
Gabriel also rejected criticism of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. He accused the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk of “conspiracy theories”. Melnyk’s assertion that during his active years as a politician, Steinmeier had “for decades created a spider’s web of contacts with Russia,” which has had an impact on the current government, suggests that the former chancellery and foreign minister helped organize the representation of Russia’s interests in Germany. “This is untruthful and vicious,” Gabriel wrote. Melnyk had expressed himself accordingly in the “Tagesspiegel” at the beginning of the month.
After Gabriel’s contribution, there was an exchange of words between the former foreign minister and Melnyk on Twitter. The Ukrainian ambassador wrote: “Your and your SPD cronies’ long-term pro-Putin policies have been malicious, above all, which brought about the barbaric war of annihilation against the state, nation, culture, against women and children in the first place.”
Melnyk also accused Gabriel of concealing his “personal political responsibility for Putin’s Nord Stream 2 project, which you launched as Vice Chancellor in 2015.” For his part, Gabriel reacted: Melnyk had to stick to the truth. “People like me negotiated with Putin not as ‘friends of Russia’, but to maintain the trans-Ukrainian pipeline that is bringing Russian gas into and through your country TODAY.”
Source: Nachrichten
