As of: February 20, 2024, 5:08 a.m
By: Christoph Gschoßmann
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Denmark assures Ukraine of urgently needed support.
The country wants to deliver not just jets, but the entire artillery stock.
Kiev/Copenhagen – Kiev still urgently needs weapons to defend itself against the aggressor from Russia in the Ukraine war.
Kiev is probably receiving support from a Scandinavian country: at the Munich Security Conference, Denmark assured Ukraine of its “entire artillery stocks”.
“They are demanding from us: ammunition now, artillery now,” said Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
Copenhagen wants to answer this call: “On the Danish side, we have decided to donate all of our artillery.”
Frederiksen promises Zelenskyj over a dozen defense packages
“There are still ammunition stocks in Europe,” Frederiksen continued.
“This is not just a question of production, because we have weapons, we have ammunition, we have air defense systems that we do not have to use ourselves at the moment, which we should supply to Ukraine.”
The Kyiv Presidential Office said on Saturday (February 17) that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Frederiksen and thanked the Danish leader for the more than dozen defense aid packages that Copenhagen had promised.
Denmark also supplies F16 jets to Ukraine
The two leaders paid “particular attention to further defense support to our country, bilateral cooperation and cooperation with other countries to provide Ukraine with the necessary weapons,” Kiev said.
Denmark also supplies F16 jets to Kiev.
In addition, Frederiksen called for the development of a European defense industry.
“No matter what happens in the United States, we must manage to defend ourselves and Ukraine,” she said.
It is no longer the time for great speeches, “we need decisions”.
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Ukraine operations restricted due to weapons shortages
Zelensky, also in Munich, said Ukraine's operations were limited only by access to weapons and ammunition.
“Maintaining an artificial weapons deficit in Ukraine, especially a deficit in artillery and long-range capabilities, allows Putin to adapt to the current intensity of the war,” Zelensky said in a speech.
Artillery has become one of the dominant factors in the almost two-year war.
Kiev has depleted its ammunition supplies and is firing
far fewer shots each day than Russia, according to a
Newsweek report.
Overall, Ukraine fired around a fifth of Russia's shells.
Ukraine also urgently needs tanks.
NATO supplies of grenades exhausted
But the use of grenades has depleted NATO's supplies, and nations within the alliance have committed to increasing ammunition production.
Because of the war in Ukraine and NATO's deliveries to Kiev, the alliance's supplies of grenades have been exhausted.
In January, NATO announced that it had signed a contract for the production of artillery shells worth 1.11 billion euros to replenish supplies while maintaining the flow of aid to Ukraine.
The alliance therefore plans to purchase around 220,000 155 mm artillery shells.
USA wants to drastically increase grenade production
The US Army also said in early February 2024 that it hoped to dramatically increase its production of 155 mm grenades so that the US military could “supply itself and our allies.”
The world saw in Avdiivka what happens when Ukraine receives too little support: Russia's troops won.
The Ukrainian army leadership has withdrawn its soldiers from the city after months of bitter fighting for the eastern Ukrainian city.
The decision was made “to save as many lives as possible,” said Zelensky.
Shortly afterwards, Russia declared that it had taken “complete control” of the city.
In an interview published on Sunday, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin emphasized that for his country Ukraine was “a matter of life and death.”
Small town Avdiivka in Ukraine conquered by Russia: Great symbolic significance
Avdiivka also has great symbolic significance because pro-Russian separatists led from Moscow had already taken the city in July 2014 - but Ukrainian units took it back under their control shortly afterwards.
In view of the withdrawal of Ukrainian soldiers from the embattled city, the US government called for Congress to quickly release billions of dollars in military aid for Kiev.
The development in Avdiivka is “the price of Congress’s inaction,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in Washington.
(cgsc with dpa)