Ukraine War: Germany supplies anti-tank weapons and missiles to Ukraine

Germany is now also supplying weapons from the stocks of the Bundeswehr to Ukraine. According to government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit, the Ukrainian armed forces are being supported with 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 “Stinger” surface-to-air missiles.

German weapons are now also to reach Ukraine via Estonia. As the German Press Agency learned from government circles, the Federal Government has ordered several deliveries to Estonia Artillery pieces from GDR old stock approved to Ukraine.
The howitzers reached Estonia via Finland, where the Bundeswehr first delivered them under certain conditions in the 1990s. The treaty between Finland and Estonia stipulates that Germany must agree to a transfer.
Specifically, it is about the D-30 model howitzers with a caliber of 122 millimeters, which were developed in the Soviet Union in the mid-1950s. The howitzers, which weigh more than three tons and have a barrel almost five meters long, can be used to shell enemy troops or tanks at a distance of up to around 15 kilometers.

Russia has denied accusations of firing at civilian targets. The Russian Ministry of Defense said that residential areas were being shelled by the Ukrainian side in order to blame the Russian armed forces for the destruction. “I emphasize once again that the Russian armed forces do not carry out any strikes on residential areas of Ukrainian cities,” said Major General Igor Konashenkov. These are provocations from the Ukrainian side, like those used by terrorists.

The International Auschwitz Committee has condemned Russia’s attack on Ukraine and in particular the choice of words used to justify the invasion. Holocaust survivors and former prisoners of German concentration and extermination camps around the world would follow “Putin’s invasion of Ukraine with horror and great pain,” according to Christoph Heubner, executive vice president of the committee.

They would never have thought that after the experiences of Auschwitz and the suffering of World War II, a Russian statesman would drive Europe back into the darkness of war.

– Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee

The federal government has approved Estonia for the delivery of several artillery pieces from old GDR stocks to the Ukraine. The German press agency learned this from government circles.

Russian troops are said to have taken a strategically important former airfield in the south of the country. According to the regional administration of the city of Berdyansk, there is heavy Russian military equipment on the site.
the According to media reports, the city is surrounded by Russian troops, who from there could advance further towards Mariupol and pinch the city. Located near the eastern Ukrainian separatist areas, Mariupol is the last major government-controlled port on the Sea of ​​Azov. The authorities imposed a curfew.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has published images from a hospital in Novovolynsk, in western Ukraine, on Twitter. According to the WHO, the Patients brought to safety there undergroundto protect them from Russian air raids.
https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1497614946762375172

meanwhile is the first special train with refugees from the Ukraine has arrived in the Czech Republic. However, only a little more than a dozen women and children disembark at Bohumin station in the east of the country.
According to the state railway company, the fact that so few people were on the train is due Information chaos and traffic problems on the Ukrainian-Polish border.

The Czech Ministry of the Interior is said to have already received around a thousand free accommodation offers for Ukrainian refugees.

Germany no longer wants to resist Russia’s exclusion from the Swift payment system. But apparently the federal government is looking for a solution to keep its own disadvantage low. She therefore speaks of a “targeted and functional” restriction. Work is being done “at full speed” on how Russia’s decoupling from Swift can be limited “so that it hits the right people,” said Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (both Green). Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had previously appealed to the EU to exclude Russia from the Swift system in addition to the sanctions already approved.

According to its own statements, Russia has the water supply for the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea restored after eight years. Russian troops are said to have blown up a dam built by Ukraine that had cut off the important North Crimean canal from the Dnipro River since 2014, army TV station Zvezda reported on Saturday.

Today as well people are demonstrating in many cities against the Russian invasion. Below are some impressions:

Bordeaux, France
In the French university town, numerous people take part in rallies and demand an end to the hostilities.
Photo: Philippe Lopez/ AFP

The country that resells German-made Panzerfausts to Ukraine is the Netherlands. See below.

Now the federal government is apparently turning around when it comes to arms deliveries to Ukraine – at least indirectly. According to information from the ARD capital studio, the Federal Republic agrees that another country is supplying 400 German Panzerfausts to Ukraine.

So far, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has refused to support Ukraine with weapons. The reason: In principle, no weapons are delivered to crisis areas.
According to the “Tagesschau”, the federal government must first approve the resale of German weapons to third countries.