Germany is sending equipment and weapons to Ukraine: the new military aid package includes 14,000 rounds of 155 mm artillery ammunition, 4 WISENT 1 demining vehicles, 3 mobile remote-controlled and protected demining systems, and 250 demining kits, the German government website reported on Monday.
According to the published updated list of military aid delivered to Ukraine, it also includes 10 Vector reconnaissance UAVs with spare parts; 22 anti-drone systems; 12 SatCom terminals; 4 vehicles for border guards; and materials for the disposal of explosive ordnance;
The package was provided by the resources of the Federal Armed Forces and government-funded industry.
It is noted that about 5 billion euros (2023) and about 1.6 billion euros (2022) have already been spent on military assistance to Ukraine. An additional 2.9 billion euros were allocated in the first two years of the war for aid that will be received only in 2025-2028.
In total, since February 24, 2022, Germany has supplied materials from the Federal Armed Forces’ stockpiles worth approximately €5.2 billion. In addition, more than 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers have received military training in Germany. The cost of this training is currently about €282 million.
The U.S. Department of Defense has the ability to provide Ukraine with another $5.4 billion worth of weapons, Voice of America reports, citing the Pentagon.
“The Pentagon has the opportunity to provide Ukraine with another $5.4 billion worth of weapons. Currently, the United States can make deliveries from its warehouses for this amount to meet the urgent needs of the Armed Forces on the battlefield,” the Voice of America said in a statement on its Telegram channel.
Polish President Andrzej Duda has said that Prime Minister Mateusz Marowiecki’s words that Warsaw is “no longer transferring weapons to Ukraine” were taken out of context, TVN24 reported on Thursday.
“In my opinion, the prime minister simply said this: we are not going to transfer to Ukraine the new weapons that we are now buying as part of the modernization of the Polish army,” the Polish president explained.
According to Duda, “We both had the same position. We cannot hand over to someone else our new weapons, which we are now buying for billions of dollars for the Polish army to strengthen it, to strengthen Poland’s security. To anyone.”
Duda specified that those contracts on Polish arms, which Poland signed with Ukraine, will be fulfilled.
At the same time, he recalled that contracts with Ukraine have been signed, including for the delivery of Polish self-propelled howitzers Krab. “We need to fulfill this contract, and we are fulfilling it,” Duda said, adding that there are other contracts concerning ammunition and demining equipment.
“As we receive new armaments from Korea, from the United States, we will also replace the armaments that are now in storage,” Duda said, noting that such armaments could be sent to Ukraine “as we did before, transferring post-Soviet armaments.”
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has allocated 7bn hryvnias for the purchase of weapons and ammunition for the State Border Guard Service.
The Cabinet’s representative in the Verkhovna Rada, Taras Melnychuk, said in Telegram that the relevant decision was made at a government meeting on Friday.
In particular, allocated to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (for the Administration of the State Border Service) on an irrevocable basis at the expense of the reserve fund of the state budget 7 billion UAH for the implementation of measures related to strengthening the defense capacity of the state, in particular, for the purchase of weapons and ammunition.
The unified state register of weapons is planned to be launched in three months, on June 23, 2023, Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Igor Klimenko said
“The first steps that we are doing now is the development of a unified state register of weapons, to be able to exchange data electronically with business entities and other law enforcement agencies,” the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine reports with reference to the words of the Minister on the air of the national telethon.
The head of the Interior Ministry said that the Interior Ministry plans to launch a single register of weapons in exactly three months – June 23, 2023.
Klimenko noted that there is a security factor in this issue, which will be discussed with the public, experts and people’s deputies.
The minister also reminded that all weapons that were legally issued to citizens at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, including units of the National Police, are registered in a single database.
“And we don’t see any problems with control of its use now,” Klimenko emphasized.
The issue of the right of Ukrainians to own weapons for their own defense should be resolved after taking into account all the weapons that they now have – to think through everything step by step to avoid complicating the crime situation, said the head of the National Police Igor Klymenko.
In an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine, commenting on the results of the survey, which showed the demand of Ukrainians for possession of weapons to protect themselves and their families, Klymenko emphasized the need to “separate military operations and peaceful life.”
“When the full-scale war of the Russian Federation in Ukraine began, the right, in my opinion, decision was made to arm our citizens. This made it possible to stop the enemy and be in relative safety for those who were at some distance from the line of military clashes,” the head said. National Police.
At the same time, he added that Ukrainians are returning to the de-occupied territories, the country is trying to return to peaceful life.
“Since the beginning of hostilities, only criminal investigation officers have seized more than a thousand firearms, more than 100 grenade launchers and 350 thousand ammunition from illegal circulation. Thousands of weapons in their hands can pose a threat to the lives of peaceful and law-abiding citizens,” the head of the National Police stressed.
“So, everything must first be returned to the warehouses, taken into account or blown up, as explosive experts do, and then we return to the issue of weapons possession. That is, first of all, we must take into account all the weapons that our citizens currently have” , – expressed the opinion of Klimenko.
According to him, the police in the first days of the invasion issued about 18 thousand weapons, they were taken into account, and the military also took into account the weapons they issued. “But there are a lot of captured weapons, of unknown origin, ammunition,” the head of the National Police added.
Klymenko also pointed out that the criminal world, which “quieted a little” at the beginning of the war, will be active again, and crime will rise to the level of peacetime.
He summed up: “Therefore, there should be a step by step: first, a register to understand how many weapons are on hand, who has them. And only after that we can talk about what weapons, what caliber and what class should be in the hands of our citizens – be it a machine gun, a carbine or a pistol.”
