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EKO HOT BLOG reports that Western nations have promised to send more and more advanced arms to Ukraine, in an effort to tip the balance in Kyiv’s favor as it fends off a grinding Russian advance in the east.
Germany said Wednesday it will supply Ukraine with modern anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems, and the U.S. will unveil a new weapons package later in the day that will include high-tech, medium-range rocket systems.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told lawmakers that the IRIS-T SLM missiles it will send are “the most modern air defense system that Germany has.”
“With this, we will enable Ukraine to defend an entire city from Russian air attacks,” he said. He said Germany will also supply Ukraine with radar systems to help locate enemy artillery.
Western arms have been critical to Ukraine’s success in stymieing Russia’s much larger and better equipped military — thwarting its initial efforts to take the capital and forcing Moscow to shift its focus to completing its capture of the eastern industrial Donbas region.
But as the war drags on and Russia bombards towns in its inching advance, Ukraine has continued to plead for more weapons to defend itself.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has occasionally criticized the West for moving too slowly in shipping in arms — and Germany has come under particular fire that it isn’t doing enough.
The U.S. package will include helicopters, Javelin anti-tank weapon systems, tactical vehicles, spare parts and more, two senior administration officials said Tuesday.
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the package before it is formally unveiled.
One official noted that the advanced rocket systems will give Ukrainian forces greater precision in targeting Russian assets inside Ukraine.
The announcements come as regional governor in the Donbas said Russian forces now control 70 percent of Sievierodonetsk, a city that is key to Russia’s efforts to seize the parts of the region not already controlled by Moscow-backed separatists.
Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, told The Associated Press in written comments that street fighting is ongoing in the city, where about 13,000 people remain even though 90 percent of residential buildings have been damaged.
FURTHER READING:
Tens of thousands have fled the city, once home to about 100,000 people.
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