At the moment, his country urgently needs 100,000 helmets and protective vests for the volunteers who are just signing up for the Landwehr to defend their homeland together with the armed forces,” said the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, the “Handelsblatt”. . Berlin continues to refuse arms deliveries, but wants to bring a field hospital to the ex-Soviet republic in February. The United States, meanwhile, announced a new NATO maneuver amid the severe tensions.
According to US information, the exercise in the Mediterranean called “Neptune Strike 22” should begin next Monday and last twelve days. The US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman will also be involved in this. US Defense Department spokesman John Kirby said the maneuver was not related to fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. “The exercise is not designed for the kind of scenarios that could play out with regard to Ukraine.” The maneuver has also been in the planning for a long time.
Russia had previously announced various naval maneuvers with a total of 140 warships over the next few weeks in the Mediterranean, Pacific and Atlantic. Several exercises are already underway on Russian territory. The Ministry of Defense in Moscow referred to training in the Voronezh region on the border with Ukraine on Saturday, where the use of flamethrowers was practiced.
The United States and its western allies have been demanding a withdrawal of Russian troops massed on the Ukrainian border for weeks. In return, Moscow is demanding security guarantees and an end to the eastward expansion of the western military alliance NATO. Efforts to ease the tension have been in full swing since last week, but have so far produced no tangible results.
Just hours after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Geneva on Friday, the US sent new military aid to Ukraine. On Saturday night, a US cargo plane landed at an airport in the capital Kiev, according to the US Embassy there. There were 90 tons of cargo on board, including ammunition “for front-line defense”. More deliveries should follow.
Russia has repeatedly called for Ukraine not to continue to build up arms because this would fuel military tensions and could encourage the country to attack the Donbass in the east of the former Soviet republic in order to take back the breakaway parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned against violating his country’s borders in a speech on Unity Day on Saturday. “Let’s preserve the independence and unity of Ukraine.”
Most recently, the Kremlin sharply criticized the delivery of light anti-tank weapons from Great Britain to Ukraine. The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania now also want to send US-made anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft systems to the ex-Soviet republic bordering Russia.
Ukraine had also repeatedly asked Germany for arms deliveries. The federal government has so far stuck to its no. The Ukrainian ambassador Melnyk said: “The seriousness of the situation demands an immediate rethink and change of course from the traffic light government on the issue of arms deliveries to Ukraine”.
Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht made it clear in the “Welt am Sonntag”: “Weapons deliveries would not be helpful at the moment – that is the consensus in the federal government”. The SPD politician announced that in February “a complete field hospital would be handed over, including the necessary training, all co-financed by Germany with 5.3 million euros”.
CSU boss Markus Söder also rejects German arms deliveries to Ukraine. Regarding Kiev’s demand for NATO membership, Bavaria’s head of government told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”: “From my point of view it is clear: NATO’s eastward expansion to include Ukraine will not be on the agenda for a long time.”