KYIV, November 23 ------ Germany's Defense Minister Boris Pistorius vowed to keep supporting Ukraine's efforts to win its war against Russia by pledging further military aid worth 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion).
The new support shall include more Iris-T SLM anti-aircraft missile systems, as well as anti-tank mines and 155-millimeter artillery shells, German news agency dpa reported. "We are talking about 20,000 additional shells," Pistorius told a joint news conference with his Ukrainian counterpart Rustem Umerov in Kyiv, the dpa said. Andrii Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president's office, said it was "a great aid package."
Pistorius' unannounced trip to the Ukrainian capital came a day after United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin traveled to the war-battered East European country and pledged American support "for the long haul," including an additional $100 million in weapons from American stockpiles. The visits appeared to be part of an international political effort to keep the war in the public mind as other events clamor for attention, including the Israel-Hamas war.
European Council President Charles Michel also arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday, the 10th anniversary of what Ukraine calls its Revolution of Dignity. That uprising brought momentous change for the country, pushing it closer to the West and bringing confrontation with Moscow. Pistorius paid tribute to the demonstrators who were killed during the pro-European protests 10 years ago, dpa reported. "Courageous people of all ages took to the streets for freedom, for rapprochement with Europe, and paid for it with their lives," the defense chief said. He put red roses at a makeshift memorial to those killed.
In a video message, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen saluted the Ukrainian desire for freedom and its application to join the European Union, saying "the future of Ukraine is" in the 27-nation bloc. "The future that the Maidan fought for has finally just begun," she said in reference to central Kyiv's Independence Square. Russia considers the Ukrainian revolt as fomented by Western interests, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday reaffirmed Moscow's view that it was "a forceful coup financed from abroad." Ukraine's current fight to push out the Kremlin's forces has lasted almost 21 months. A recent Ukrainian counteroffensive has apparently yielded no major changes on the battlefield, and another tough winter of attritional warfare lies ahead.
The United Kingdom's Defense Ministry said Russia could target Ukraine's power grid again, just like last winter, when Moscow sought to wear down local resistance by denying civilians home heating and running water. "Russia has now refrained from launching its premier air-launched cruise missiles from its heavy bomber fleet for nearly two months, likely allowing it to build up a substantial stock of these weapons," the ministry said on Tuesday.
Germany is the second-biggest single provider of military and financial support to Ukraine after the US, and German officials said Pistorius aimed to assess the effectiveness of its aid, as well as take stock of the fighting during his visit. Elsewhere, two Russian missiles struck a hospital in the eastern Donetsk region, wounding six people and possibly leaving more buried under rubble, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Tuesday. Russian forces attacked Ukraine overnight with 10 Shahed-type drones, four S-300 missiles and one Iskander-K cruise missile, Kyiv's Air Force said. Nine Shahed drones and the Iskander-K missile were successfully intercepted on Monday night, it said. No casualties were immediately reported. At least five Ukrainian civilians were killed and 10 others were injured in southeastern regions of the country over the previous 24 hours, Ukraine's presidential office said on Tuesday. Civilians have been victims of Russia's barrages. At least 10,000 Ukrainian civilians, including more than 560 children, have been killed and more than 18,500 have been injured since Russia's full-scale invasion, the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said.
Source: manilatimes.net
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