NATO chief More weapons for Kyiv in the near future

NATO chief: More weapons for Kyiv “in the near future”

On Friday, members of the Ukraine Contact Group, which includes the United States, Britain and Germany, will meet at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. “We are in a crucial phase of the war,” NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg told the German “Handelsblatt”.

Military support is the quickest path to peace. “Recent commitments for heavy war equipment are important – and I expect more in the near future,” said the Norwegian.

Ferocious wave of Russian attack

Russia hit Ukraine on Saturday with the biggest wave of attacks so far this year. The Ukrainian General Staff said Russia had launched three waves of attacks on Saturday, using 57 missiles, among others. 26 of them were shot down by air defense.

debate

Ukraine: what is needed for peace?

skyscraper success

A Russian missile hit a civilian skyscraper in the city of Dnipro. The death toll rose overnight on Monday – the military governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Valentyn Resnichenko, spoke of at least 35. More than 70 were wounded. More than 30 wounded are still in hospital, including 12 seriously injured, said Natalia Babachenko, adviser to the regional governor.

Authorities suspect dozens more people under the rubble – they currently speak of 35. Hopes of finding survivors are fading. “The chance of finding more survivors is slim,” Dnipro Mayor Boris Filatov told Portal.

According to the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform, at least 26 civilians were killed across the country and more than 80 were injured in addition to the attack on the apartment building. The leadership in Kyiv strongly condemned the attacks and once again spoke of “Russian terror”.

Rocket attack on skyscraper in Dnipro

Ukraine is experiencing or suffering the biggest wave of attacks in weeks. One particularly devastating attack rocked the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine.

Ukraine also prepared the population for new problems with the supply of electricity. Across the country, the already significantly reduced amount of electricity per household in many places had to be reduced further on Sunday in order to avoid major bottlenecks, state power grid operator Ukrenerho said.

Moscow expresses itself only indirectly

Addressing the population of the neighboring country in Russian, President Zelenskyy said: “I would like to address everyone in Russia who, even now, does not have a few words of condemnation for this terror, although they see and understand everything clearly. Your silence cowardly will only end up with those terrorists coming after you too one day.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry has not commented on the high civilian casualties. Instead, ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said only on Sunday of the latest attacks: “All designated objects were hit. The target of the blow has been reached.”

Britain advances with tank delivery

Zelenskyi reiterated his demand for the delivery of heavy weapons to his country. He expressed his thanks to Great Britain. London promised to supply Ukraine with a total of 14 Challenger 2 main battle tanks.

British tank Challenger 2

APA/AFP/Getty Images/British Army/Pete Bristo London is sending a clear signal to other NATO countries with the delivery of the Challenger 2

Great Britain is the first country to supply modern Western heavy main battle tanks to Kyiv. This is a signal for other partners in his country to do the same, said Zelenskyy. Until now, Ukraine has received Western-style anti-aircraft wheeled infantry fighting tanks, but only ex-Soviet or Russian models of main battle tanks, mainly through ring exchanges from Eastern European NATO countries, which received Western models in return.

Leopard 2 dispute

Above all, Ukraine has been urging Germany for weeks to deliver the modern Leopard 2, whose A4 version is also used in the Austrian army and is technically superior to Russian tanks. Poland and Finland want to offer some Leopard models manufactured in Germany. Berlin has so far rejected this, within the government’s “traffic light coalition” formed by the SPD, FDP and Greens, the topic is controversial.

German tank Leopard 2A7V

picturedesk.com/dpa/Philipp Schulze So far Germany has turned down Leopard 2, Poland and Finland are said to want to deliver

Berlin doesn’t want to be pushed

In any case, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) does not want to be pressured, as he recently confirmed again – likely out of fear that German tank deliveries could draw NATO deeper into the conflict in Ukraine or allow it to escalate. further.

Moscow has issued corresponding threats to London about the delivery of Challenger 2. So far, Germany has supplied Gepard anti-aircraft vehicles, 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles are to follow, as well as artillery, anti-aircraft and radar systems.