BERLIN: Germany will support Ukraine as long as needed, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s first visit to capital Berlin since the start of the Russian invasion in February last year.
“I have said it many times, and I repeat it here today: we will support you for as long as it is necessary,” Scholz said during a joint news conference on Sunday, adding that Germany stood with its partners “for Russia to be held to account for its misdeeds”.
The Ukrainian leader said Kyiv would always be grateful to Berlin for its support during the war, adding that Ukraine’s Western allies could make Russia’s defeat “irreversible” as early as this year.
The German government announced 2.7 billion euros ($3bn) of military aid to Ukraine on Saturday, its biggest such package yet since the war broke out.
The new military aid package, first reported by German weekly Der Spiegel, includes 30 Leopard 1 A5 tanks, 20 Marder armoured personnel carriers, more than 100 combat vehicles, 18 self-propelled Howitzers, 200 reconnaissance drones, four IRIS-T SLM anti-aircraft systems and other air defence equipment.
In a tweet soon after the meeting, Zelenskyy thanked Germany for “the largest military aid” since the invasion. “German air defense systems, artillery, tanks and infantry fighting vehicles are saving Ukrainian lives and bringing us closer to victory,” he said.
Germany, Europe’s largest economy, faced criticism at the start of the war for what some called a hesitant response, but it has become one of Ukraine’s biggest providers of financial and military assistance, crucially giving the green light for the delivery of modern battle tanks in the form of its own Leopard 1 and 2 models, along with sophisticated anti-aircraft systems needed to fend off drone and missile attacks.
Speaking in Berlin, Zelenskyy reassured his Western allies that his country was preparing a counteroffensive designed to liberate areas occupied by Russia, not to attack Russian territory.
There has been speculation that Ukraine might try to capture areas in Russia and use them as bargaining chips in possible peace negotiations to end the war launched by Moscow in February 2022. –Agencies
