Ukraine gets shields and howitzers as Europe opens military stocks

Weapons from the former East Germany are among supplies being sent to help fend off Russian invasion

Russia's invasion has prompted even usually pacifist nations, such as Germany and non-Nato members Sweden and Finland, to open up their military stocks in support of Ukraine. Photo: AFP

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Ukraine will receive East German howitzers and thousands of helmets and body shields from Nordic countries in the latest shipment of military gear to be sent by allies in Europe.

Russia’s invasion has prompted even usually pacifist nations, such as Germany and non-Nato members Sweden and Finland, to open up their military stocks in support of Ukraine.

Berlin’s change of heart on sending weapons to war zones means 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger surface-to-air missiles will be exported to Ukraine.

It also means Estonia can export a stock of ammunition and weapons that once belonged to the National People’s Army of communist East Germany, including D-30 howitzers of Soviet design.

Although the East German weapons were sold to Finland, then Estonia, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the government of the reunified Germany retained the right to veto their onward export.

Estonia’s request to supply them to Ukraine was initially denied, but the veto was lifted because the Russian attack has “created a new reality” in Europe, said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

The same approval was given to 400 anti-tank weapons produced in Germany that now belong to the Dutch military.

Germany had been ridiculed for sending just 5,000 helmets as Russian troops gathered on the border. On Sunday, it announced its own military would receive a one-off €100 billion ($112bn) spending boost to modernise its equipment in light of the Russian threat.

A monitor displays a projectile striking the regional state administration building in Kharkiv, as the Russian invasion continues. Reuters

People help a wounded woman in the aftermath of Russian shelling in Kharkiv. EPA

Ukrainian emergency service personnel carry the body of a victim following shelling in Kharkiv. AP

Students who fled the conflict rest in a refugee camp in Voluntari, Romania. AP

Members of an Ukrainian civil defence unit pass new assault rifles to the opposite side of a blown-up bridge on Kiev’s northern front. AFP

Civilians cross a river on Kiev's northern front. AFP

A woman takes photos of a destroyed accommodation building near a checkpoint in Brovary, outside Kiev. AP

The city hall of Kharkiv, damaged by Russian shelling. AFP

Debris litters the square outside the damaged Kharkiv city hall. AFP

A Ukrainian woman sleeps on the floor of the railway station in Zahonyi close to the Hungary/Ukraine border. AFP

A medical worker attends to wounded man at a hospital in Brovary, outside Kiev. AP

Refugees from Ukraine in a tent at the Medyka border crossing, Poland. AP

Debris outside the regional administration building, which city officials said was hit by a missile, in Kharkiv. Reuters

A student evacuated from Ukraine is embraced by her family after arriving at Tunis-Carthage International Airport in Tunisia. AFP

Rescuers in a building damaged by a missile in central Kharkiv. Reuters

An ambulance is visible through the damaged window of a vehicle hit by bullets in Kiev, Ukraine. Reuters

Territorial defence members prepare to head out on patrol in Kiev. EPA

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres delivers a speech on screen during the opening of the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. AP

A policeman detains a young demonstrator during a protest against Russia's attack on Ukraine in St Petersburg, Russia. AP

Local residents in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, prepare Molotov cocktails. Reuters

Residents clean a bomb shelter under an out-of-service cinema in central Zhytomyr. Reuters

Ukrainian volunteers tear cloth into strips to make camouflage nets in Lviv, western Ukraine. AP

Part of the military convoy north-west of Invankiv, Ukraine. AP

Mark Goncharuk, a young boy from Kiev, leaves his father behind as he travels with the rest of his family towards the border. Reuters

People hold an anti-war protest outside the Russian Embassy in Mexico City, Mexico. Reuters

A crater caused by shelling on the outskirts of Kiev. AFP

People queue outside a grocery store in the Ukrainian capital. EPA

Ukrainian soldiers stand at Maidan Nezalezhnosti, or Independence Square, in Kiev. EPA

Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation, second left, and Davyd Arakhamia, faction leader of the Servant of the People party in the Ukrainian Parliament, third right, attend the peace talks in the Gomel region of Belarus. AP

People who have fled the Russian invasion in Ukraine, clamour to board a bus bound for a refugee centre established in Przemysl, Poland. Reuters

Hanna Pavlovna Lukasz, from Mirhord, Ukraine, said her sons, aged 12 and 8, and her 66-year-old mother had been waiting on the Ukrainian side of the border crossing with Medyka, Poland, for four days. AP

A volunteer from Kiev prepares a rear post with trenches in the city. AFP

A child being treated for cancer rests in the bomb shelter of the oncology ward at a hospital in Kiev. Getty

Police officers check occupants of a suspicious car in Kiev, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues. Reuters

A woman from Ukraine uses a phone to listen to a speech by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a refugee shelter in Beregsurany, Hungary. Reuters

Shelves empty of bread after a curfew was lifted as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in Kiev. Reuters

Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov, left, and President Zelenskyy. AFP

Snow-covered shoes donated for those fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the border crossing in Medyka, Poland. Reuters

People who have fled Ukraine wait for a bus to transport them away from the border crossing in Medyka. Reuters

Norwegian soldiers of the Nato-enhanced forward presence battalion pose at a military plane as they arrive at an airport in Kaunas, Lithuania. AP

A person fleeing Ukraine sits during snowfall at a temporary camp in Przemysl, Poland. Reuters

Footage reportedly of Russian Buk missile system vehicles on a road before a drone strike near Malyn, Ukraine. Reuters

An explosion after what are said to be Russian Buk missile system vehicles on a road are struck by a drone. Reuters

The monument to Russian troops from the Second World War, after the figures’ hands were painted red, at the Red Army memorial in Sofia, Bulgaria. EPA

The Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, is lit up with the colours of Ukraine’s national flag in a show of support. AP

Russian President Vladimir Putin visits the construction site of the National Space Agency on the premises of the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Centre, in Moscow. EPA

A man looks out from a train, at the railway station in Lviv, Ukraine. The UN has estimated the conflict could produce as many as four million refugees. AP

A Ukrainian boy waits for his mother after passing the border crossing point in Siret, northern Romania. EPA

Russian policemen detain a demonstrator in St Petersburg, during a protest against the country's military actions in Ukraine. EPA

Ukrainian soldiers at a check point in the city of Zhytomyr. Reuters

Residents prepare petrol bombs to defend the city, in Uzhhorod, Ukraine. Reuters

A pro-Russian fighter sits inside a tank in the separatist self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, in the Luhansk region, Ukraine. Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, speaks to Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, second left, and Head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and First Deputy Defence Minister Valery Gerasimov, left, during their meeting in Moscow. AP

Ukrainians and supporters gather during a demonstration in front of the Greek Parliament in Athens against the Russian military's operation in Ukraine. AFP

Ukrainian Territorial Defence fighters test an automatic grenade launcher taken from a destroyed Russian infantry mobility vehicla after a battle in Kharkiv. AFP

Elsewhere, Finland announced it was sending Ukraine 2,000 bulletproof vests, 2,000 helmets, 100 stretchers and other medical supplies. Like Germany, it approved Estonia’s request to forward goods bought from Finland.

Its neighbour Sweden said it would provide 500 million krona ($52.6m) directly to the Ukrainian armed forces, as well as 5,000 helmets, 5,000 body shields and 135,000 field rations.

The two Nordic nations are not part of Nato but have sided with Ukraine in the current crisis and rejected the idea that Russia should veto any future membership application.

“It is also important that the EU is continuing to demonstrate great unity,” said Swedish EU Affairs Minister Hans Dahlgren.

Both countries also approved the EU's move to finance weapons deliveries to a country under attack for the first time.

The EU funding will consist of €450m for weapons for the Ukrainian army and €50m for non-lethal supplies such as fuel and protective gear, said the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell.

Poland, which neighbours Ukraine, will be the logistical centre for distributing these weapons to the front line.

“We want to keep peace in Europe, but we have to be prepared to defend this peace,” Mr Borrell said.

Britain and the US started supplying Ukraine with defensive weapons before the invasion began and said they would continue to do so.

US President Joe Biden announced an extra $350m worth of supplies for Ukraine at the weekend, including munitions, body armour and other equipment.

Ukraine has lobbied for greater western support as it tries to fend off the Russian invasion. The US estimates that about half of the 150,000 Russian troops who gathered on the border before the invasion are in Ukraine.

A UK intelligence update on Monday said the Russian invaders had been frustrated by Ukraine’s resistance, their own logistical failures and were falling behind their military targets.