Germany will send Ukraine modern anti-aircraft systems and radars

Germany will send Ukraine modern anti-aircraft systems and radars to locate enemy artillery with which to better defend itself against Russian aggression. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced on Wednesday the supply to the attacked country of the “most modern anti-aircraft system available to Germany”, which will allow Ukraine to protect “an entire large city from Russian air attacks.” It is the “Iris-T” short-range air-to-air missile system, developed by Germany with six other countries after the end of the Cold War and produced by the German Diehl consortium. In addition, Berlin will provide kyiv with “Cobra” mobile radars for locating enemy artillery, which recognize and calculate the ballistic trajectory of the projectiles in order to precisely locate the point of origin of those shots and be able to combat it.

In an intervention before the Bundestag, the federal parliament, Scholz flatly rejected the accusations of the conservative opposition that Germany does not supply heavy weapons to Ukraine. In this regard, he recalled that several NATO partners in Eastern Europe are providing tanks and battle tanks to the Ukrainian army in exchange for similar military material that Germany will supply. Greece joined the exchanges that have already been agreed with Slovenia or the Czech Republic, said the federal chancellor, who stressed that this country and the Netherlands will also soon send Ukraine “Gepard” battle tanks and a dozen heavy self-propelled howitzers. «Panzerhaubitzen 2000», considered among the most modern in the world. Ukrainian soldiers have been in the German Palatinate for two weeks learning how to handle the latter.

The federal government made “a brave decision” when, in the face of Russian aggression, it immediately decided to end the tradition of not sending weapons to war zones. “A few days after the war started, we sent anti-aircraft missiles and anti-tank weapons,” said Scholz, who spoke of dozens of military supply trucks and listed in detail the material supplied to Ukraine since then, from 15 million bullets, 100,000 grenades and 5,000 mines. anti-tank, anti-tank systems, automatic or explosive rifles. He also responded to criticism of the poor state of the German armed forces by saying that conservative politicians have saved on national military spending to the point of bankrupting the army. “It was a Union-led government that carried out that state practice in recent years,” Scholz noted, referring to Angela Merkel’s 16 years in power.

Previously, the leader of the conservative group in the Bundestag, the president of the Christian Democrats, Friedrich Merz, had harshly criticized the federal chancellor for his “indecisive” policy towards Ukraine and the alleged “irritation” in Europe due to the alleged “passivity” of Germany in this conflict. In this sense, Scholz highlighted his close contacts with French President Emmanuel Macron, together with whom he held a telephone conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to try to end the fighting in Ukraine and achieve a ceasefire. . The goal of the federal government is that Putin “does not win” the war against Ukraine. “Our goal is for Ukraine to be able to defend itself and to be successful,” the Berlin chief executive said.