Ukraine asks Germany for warships and anti-aircraft systems News – current news about world events DW
Ukrainian Ambassador to Berlin Andriy Melnyk once again called on Berlin to arm Kyiv. He said this in an interview with dpa, released on Wednesday, January 19.
“First of all, the problems of warships are among the best in the world, which we need to effectively protect the long coast of the Black and Azov Seas,” said the diplomat.
According to Melnyk, Ukraine also needs the most modern anti-aircraft systems, which, as he found out, are produced by German defense concerns. For many years, Ukraine has been receiving arms supplies from Germany to defend against a possible Russian invasion, but so far without success.
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The day before, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz once again rejected Kyiv’s request, emphasizing that Germany has been pursuing a balanced strategy for many years, which excludes the export of summer weapons. During her visit to Kyiv on January 17, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also spoke about her unchanging position on arms exports.
Some German politicians are in favor of supplying weapons to Ukraine
At the same time, voices are beginning to be heard in Germany, casting doubt on the government’s tough stance on the issue. Thus, the head of the Bundestag’s defense committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, believes that the possibility of supplying weapons to Ukraine for self-defense should be considered.
“The coalition agreement agreed not to put weapons in crisis regions. But, using my current zone and the threat to our continent, we must reconsider this position in this particular case. The supply of defense weapons could provide support to Ukraine,” she said. in an interview with the t-online news portal, a representative of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), which is part of Germany’s leading coalition with the Social Democrats and the Greens.
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Henning Otte, a representative of the opposition Christian Democratic Union, agrees. “If Ukraine asks for defense weapons to defend against a possible Russian attack, we cannot refuse. To avoid violations of the arms supply in the coalition agreements is not an appropriate policy,” he said, adding that he would not object. supply of anti-aircraft systems to Ukraine.
Washington: Russia can attack Ukraine at any moment
Meanwhile, the US administration has again warned of the imminent threat of Russian invasion of Ukraine. “We are now at a stage where Russia can launch an attack on Ukraine at any moment,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Tuesday (January 18th). She called the current name “extremely dangerous”, and there are now about 100,000 servicemen near the border with Ukraine.
Read also: Danilov: Ukraine will have enough weapons to meet all the “green” men
The West and for several months now have been accusing Russia of collecting more than a thousand servicemen and equipment to the Ukrainian border. They are showing Moscow in preparation for a new invasion of Ukraine. Russia says it has no such intentions, and in turn accuses NATO of arming Ukraine and conducting maneuvers near Russia’s borders.