Berlin — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday that his country would supply Ukraine with modern anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems, amid criticism that Germany was not doing enough to help Kyiv stop Russia’s supply of weapons. accelerating.
Scholz told lawmakers that the government had decided to provide Ukraine with other NATO countries with IRIS-T missiles developed by Germany.
He said Germany would also provide Ukraine with radar systems to help locate enemy artillery.
The announcement comes at a time when Ukrainian forces are fighting for the eastern industrial region of the Donbass. After several setbacks in the weeks following their offensive, Russian troops turned their attention to the Donbass and are intent on capturing parts of the region not already controlled by Moscow-backed separatists.
In the Donbass, Russian forces have seized half of a major eastern Ukrainian city in a “frenzied push”, Mayor Oleksandr Stryk said on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Serhi Haidai, governor of the larger Luhansk region, said that most of the city, Svyarodonetsk, was under Russian control, although he said fierce fighting continued and the city was not surrounded.
Military analysts have said the fighting in the Donbass is a race against time: the Kremlin is hoping for victory before more Western weapons arrive to bolster Ukraine’s defences.
West is hoping to tilt the balance. President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that the US would provide Ukraine with more advanced rocket systems than what its leaders have sought. In an essay published in The New York Times, Biden said the rocket systems would enable Ukraine to “strike key targets more accurately.”
US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of Biden’s announcement, said Washington would send a small number of high-tech, medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine. The rockets could be used to intercept Russian artillery and take out Russian positions in cities where fighting is intense, such as Svyarodonetsk.
The announcements come amid claims at home and abroad that Germany has been slow to provide Ukraine with the weapons it needs to defend itself against Russia.
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