Ukraine will be told to shop for its own weapons with €1 billion ($1.1bn) provided by its European neighbours, Germany said on Monday, amid mixed signals over its direct arms shipments to Ukraine.
The European Union’s 27 members were poised to agree the subsidy on Monday, said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who said Ukraine needed more equipment to fight Russian forces she described as committing war crimes.
The money would be put in place so that “Ukraine can buy its own weapons or that countries who continue to deliver weapons are supported,” said Ms Baerbock as she arrived for the meeting in Brussels.
Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht had said on Sunday that direct shipments from Germany’s armed forces had been exhausted and that manufacturers would have to take up the baton of equipping Ukraine.
But the government’s chief spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said on Monday that some direct shipments would continue in a similar vein to previous shipments.
The ruling coalition agreed this month to send 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 surface-to-air missiles from its own military to Ukraine, as well as approving the export of weapons that once belonged to communist East Germany.
However, a report by newspaper Die Welt said the government’s deliveries had fallen short of expectations, with only 500 of the 2,700 Strela rockets promised to Ukraine at the start of March actually being delivered.
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A woman cries near a building damaged by shelling in Kyiv as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues. EPA -
A satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows the damage from a Russian strike on Lviv's international airport. AP -
Destroyed cars hit by shelling in Kyiv. EPA -
A woman stands in her home after her building was damaged by shelling in Kyiv. EPA -
A pedestrian looks at a cloud of smoke rising after an explosion in Lviv. AP -
General view of a street behind a barricade in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa. EPA -
The UN Security Council meets on threats to international peace and security in New York. AFP -
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks with US troops at an army training range in Bulgaria. AP -
Empty strollers are seen outside the Lviv city council building during an action to highlight the number of children killed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. AFP -
Children play on the stage of the theatre of the Ukrainian House where a shelter for refugees has been installed in Przemysl, south-eastern Poland. AFP -
Smoke is seen above buildings close to the airport in Lviv, Ukraine. Lviv's mayor said the airport was not hit, but an area nearby. Getty Images -
Ukrainian firefighters try to extinguish a blaze at a warehouse after a bombing in Kyiv. AP Photo -
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy presents flowers to Kateryna Vlasenko, 16 - who was injured as she fled with her family from the town of Vorzel - at a hospital in Kyiv. Reuters -
Igor, a 40 year-old Ukranian soldier, embraces his wife in front of his military basement in the centre of Odesa. AFP -
Ukrainian refugees arrive at the reception centre near Palanca Village, about 3 kilometres from the Moldova-Ukraine border. EPA -
Broken windows after parts of a Russian missile, shot down by Ukrainian air defences, hit an apartment block in Kyiv. AP -
People clear debris outside a medical centre damaged by the same Russian missile after it was intercepted. AP -
A police officer looks through the window of a damaged flat in Kyiv. One person was killed and three injured when debris from a downed rocket hit an apartment in the Ukrainian capital. AFP -
Firemen working in the rubble after extensive damage in Kyiv. AFP -
Family members and comrades of Ivan Skrypny, who was killed in a rocket attack on a military base in Yavoriv, pay their last respects at his memorial service in Lviv, Ukraine. Reuters -
A man feels the despair as his home was hit by debris from a downed rocket in Kyiv. Russian troops trying to encircle the capital have launched early morning strikes on the city for several successive days. AFP -
UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed shakes hands with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during a news conference following their talks in Moscow. Reuters -
The Donetsk Regional Theatre of Drama, which was destroyed by an air strike during Russia's military onslaught in Mariupol, Ukraine. Reuters -
A satellite image of the theatre before the bombing, with the word 'children' written in Russian in large white letters on the pavement in front of and behind the building. Reuters -
A Ukrainian woman and her family in a taxi displaying the colours of the Ukrainian flag upon arriving in Madrid with a group of Spanish taxi drivers who drove to Poland to support the mass evacuation of refugees. Reuters -
A sanitised train arrives in Kielce, Poland, carrying children with oncological diseases who fled Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Reuters -
A man outside a damaged housing block after it was hit by debris from a downed rocket in Kyiv. AFP -
A residential building damaged by a blast wave at the scene where debris from a downed rocket hit a nearby apartment block in Kyiv. AFP -
Evacuees from Mariupol are seen upon arrival at the car park of a shopping centre on the outskirts of the city of Zaporizhzhia, which is now a registration centre for displaced people. AFP -
Legislators applaud Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine's president, after an address via video link at the Bundestag in Berlin. Bloomberg
Ministers are refusing to comment on such details on the grounds that shipments could become targets for Russian air strikes in Ukraine — a threat made explicit by the country’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last week.
“We won’t talk about it in public because we are talking about life and death,” said Ms Baerbock.
She said the government would try to ensure that any orders placed with German arms manufacturers are fulfilled as soon as possible, after Die Welt separately reported that no such exports had yet taken place.
Many Nato countries have sent weapons to Ukraine without crossing the alliance’s red line that its own armed forces should not intervene in the war with Russia.
Kyiv has failed to persuade the US-led bloc to establish a no-fly zone to stop Russian bombardments, but has described air defence systems such as the Soviet-era S-300 as an alternative if closing the skies is not possible.
Ukraine’s armed forces already use the S-300 and credit it with destroying Russian aircraft and helicopters during the nearly month-long war.
Slovakia said on Sunday that it had received Patriot air defence systems from Germany and the Netherlands in a move towards freeing up its own stock of S-300s for export to Ukraine.
The EU member had said last week that it was willing to make such a shipment if it received a replacement for its S-300s, but visiting US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin did not make such a promise.
The US Army describes the Patriot as its most advanced air defence system, capable of taking down both war planes and tactical ballistic missiles up to an altitude of 20 kilometres.
From the Russian side, Mr Lavrov said Moscow had a veto on exports of the Soviet and Russian-made S-300 and described weapons being imported to Ukraine as “fair game” for military attacks.
Ms Baerbock said Russia had used the suspicion of weapons deliveries as cover for some of its bombardments in Ukraine, which western powers say have included attacks on schools, hospitals and other civilian infrastructure.
