Ukraine gets highly anticipated arms from Germany - Spiegel

RT
Tue, 11 Oct 2022 17:23 UTC

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IRIS-T SLM launcher

Ukraine has received the first of four IRIS-T SLM air defense systems from Germany, Der Spiegel reported on Tuesday. With its own weapons stockpiles seriously depleted, Germany is gifting this ultra-modern system to Kiev before its own forces.

The system - which comprises a command vehicle, a radar vehicle, and a truck-mounted launcher capable of firing eight missiles - was handed over to the Ukrainian military next to the Polish-Ukrainian border on Tuesday, the German magazine reported.

The handover took place four days after German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht made an unannounced visit to Ukraine, where she promised her Ukrainian counterpart, Aleksey Reznikov, that his country would receive the IRIS-T "in a few days." German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged to provide this system to Ukraine back in June, with delivery initially slated for November.

In an update on Monday, Lambrecht said that Russia's devastating missile strikes on Ukrainian military and infrastructure targets that morning showed "how important it is to supply Ukraine with air defense systems quickly."

Berlin has promised Ukraine at least four IRIS-T systems, each of which can supposedly strike incoming missiles up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) away. Ukraine has reportedly asked Germany for at least a dozen of these systems, and offered to purchase them directly from the manufacturer, Diehl Defense.

Germany's own military has yet to field a single ground-based IRIS-T system, with the remaining three pledged to Ukraine yet to be manufactured, Der Spiegel reported. Germany has faced persistent criticism from Kiev for its supposed hesitance in donating sufficiently heavy weaponry, but the arms it has sent have left its own stocks depleted.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned of "absolute deficits" in Germany's weapons stocks in August, and a report by Business Insider on Saturday revealed that the Bundeswehr (German Army) has only enough ammunition for two days of warfare.

Comment: Germany is only one of the Western puppet proxies severely depleting their war stocks - perfect for Russia should the West deign to engage more directly.

The first unit of Germany's cutting-edge IRIS-T air defense system has arrived in Ukraine, the country's Defense Minister Alexey Reznikov has confirmed. His German counterpart Christine Lambrecht described the shipment as an important contribution to the Eastern European nation's ability to defend itself from "missile shelling."

The air defense system is rather expensive, according to former Ukrainian ambassador to Germany Andrey Melnik. Speaking to Wirtschaftswoche magazine back in June, the diplomat estimated that one such unit could cost some €140 million ($135.4 million).

Not to be outdone:

The US is expediting the shipment of two of the eight NASAMS air defense systems it's promised to Ukraine, White House spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday. The announcement follows Monday's phone call between US President Joe Biden and his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky.

Washington had approved, in late August, the delivery of National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) to Kiev, with two systems expected to be delivered soon and six more arriving in the longer term.

"We think that we're on track to get those first two over there in the very near future. We are certainly interested in expediting the delivery of NASAMS to Ukraine as soon as we can."

Biden and Zelensky talked on Monday in the wake of a massive Russian missile barrage on Ukrainian military targets and infrastructure.

During that call, the US President "pledged to continue providing Ukraine with the support needed to defend itself, including advanced air defense systems."

Stoltenberg, with no real skin in the game, makes demands:

NATO member states should focus more on providing anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems to Ukraine, the secretary-general of the alliance said on Wednesday. Jens Stoltenberg stressed Kiev's "urgent need" for such weaponry, ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.

"Allies have provided air defense, but we need even more. We need different types of air defense, short-range, long-range air defense systems to take ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, drones."

The NATO chief praised Germany for the reported delivery of advanced IRIS-T interceptors to Kiev. He added that NATO needs to "scale up" such supplies, as Ukraine is a big country with many cities that need protection against Russian strikes.

Zelensky demands more defenses from the West:

President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged the West to supply more anti-aircraft weapons to Ukraine, insisting that his country currently has only 10% of what it needs.

Zelensky made the remarks as he addressed a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Thursday via videolink.

"Our ability to close the skies is not sufficient. Ukraine would like to receive 'many times' more anti-aircraft defense systems from the West. I ask you at all levels, in politics, in the media, in communication with voters, to back the supply of sufficient air and missile defense systems to Ukraine."