In the Ukraine conflict, the federal government wants to deliver a field hospital to Kiev, but continues to refuse arms deliveries. In February, “a complete field hospital will be handed over, including the necessary training, all co-financed by Germany with 5.3 million euros,” said Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht of the “Welt am Sonntag”.
Germany has also already delivered ventilators and is treating seriously injured Ukrainian soldiers in Bundeswehr hospitals. The federal government must do everything to de-escalate the crisis. “Weapons deliveries would not be helpful at the moment – that is the consensus in the federal government,” emphasized the SPD politician.
The “seriousness of the situation” demands an immediate rethink from the traffic light government and a change of course on the question of arms deliveries to Ukraine, the Ukrainian ambassador Andriy Melnyk demanded in the “Handelsblatt”. His country “will not rest in convincing the federal government and the opposition to deliver defensive weapons to Ukraine”.
At the moment, the country is not even about weapons, but about equipment for “the volunteers who are currently signing up for the Landwehr to defend their homeland together with the armed forces,” Melnyk said. Ukraine urgently needs 100,000 helmets and protective vests for them.
US plane brings military equipment to Kiev
Meanwhile, the United States has sent new military aid to Ukraine. On the night of Saturday, a US cargo plane landed at an airport in the capital Kiev, as the US embassy there announced in the short message service Twitter. There were 90 tons of cargo on board, including ammunition “for front-line defense”. This support was ordered by US President Joe Biden.
The embassy released images showing the plane being unloaded. It was the first of several deliveries, it said. This “demonstrates the strong commitment of the United States to Ukraine’s sovereign right to self-defense.”
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 Donbass in the east of the ex-Soviet republic in order to take back the breakaway parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his US colleague Antony Blinken only met on Friday for crisis talks in Geneva.
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 Ukraine. The background is the severe tensions in the Ukraine conflict and fears in the West that Russia could attack the neighboring country. Moscow has already rejected this several times. (dpa)
shotxshotx on January 23rd, 2022 at 01:24 UTC »
I’d like 100 on mutual destruction please
cloudburr on January 23rd, 2022 at 00:53 UTC »
So when do we think this thing is going to kick off? Its been building and building
Longjumping_Bread68 on January 23rd, 2022 at 00:53 UTC »
German's in the middle of some stupid kerfuffle about exporting arms, after the outgoing government sent arms to Egypt of all places right before stepping down (my facts might be slightly wrong due to misunderstanding the German papers). So there's a bit of a moratorium on arms deals. All in all, I think this is a good sign. It shows that Germany is still with the rest of NATO if things go downhill. Hell, Germany could operate field hospitals and drive logistics trucks and they'd still be making a big contribution. I hope the aid continues to come even if there are no immediate arms sales.