The essentials in brief:
- NATO wants more support for Ukraine
- Media: US will equip Ukraine with cluster munitions
- Zelenskyj: The counter-offensive is “not progressing quickly”.
- MAD warns of increasing espionage from Russia
NATO is preparing a comprehensive support package for Ukraine for the forthcoming summit in Lithuania. According to Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, a multi-year program will be agreed at the summit meeting in Vilnius to enable smooth cooperation between the armed forces of Ukraine and the alliance in the future. In addition, the promise made in 2008 that Ukraine can become a member of NATO is to be renewed.
Until then, it is planned to deepen political relations through the creation of a new NATO-Ukraine Council. “Moscow has been bringing death and destruction to the heart of Europe for 500 days in order to destroy Ukraine and split NATO,” Stoltenberg told journalists in Brussels. However, the meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday will send a clear signal that the defense alliance is united and that Russia’s aggression will not pay off.
According to Stoltenberg, new regional defense plans are planned to strengthen NATO’s deterrence and defense. In order to be able to implement these, around 300,000 soldiers are to be kept on high operational readiness throughout the alliance.
Media: USA wants to deliver cluster munitions
According to the media, the US government is planning to supply Ukraine with cluster munitions. The Ministry of Defense initially did not want to confirm a corresponding report by the “New York Times”. “I don’t have anything specific to announce today,” Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said. The White House had previously said it was examining the transfer of cluster munitions to Ukraine, which had been attacked by Russia. According to CNN, the plans could be officially announced this Friday.
Cluster munitions are rockets and bombs that burst in the air over the target and release many small explosive devices – so-called submunitions. The type of ammunition has been criticized because a significant percentage of these explosive devices often do not detonate but remain on site as duds, thus endangering the population. Germany and many other countries have signed a treaty banning cluster munitions. The United States, however, did not sign the agreement.
“I would like to note that the Russians have already used cluster munitions on the battlefield,” Pentagon spokesman Ryder said. The USA had cluster munitions in their stocks. Ryder pointed out that older ammunition had a higher rate of duds. “We would carefully select bullets with a lower dud rate for which we have current test data,” Ryder said.
EU wants to boost ammunition production
In the long term, the Ukrainian armed forces can hope for significantly more ammunition and missile deliveries from the European Union. Representatives of the member states and the European Parliament agreed on a plan with which the European armaments industry should be encouraged to rapidly expand production capacities thanks to financial incentives. The paper proposed by the EU Commission in May envisages spending 500 million euros from the EU budget.
The agreement is further evidence of the EU’s tireless commitment to supporting Ukraine, commented Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles for the current EU Council Presidency. It also demonstrates the commitment to strengthening the EU’s defense technological and industrial base and ensuring the long-term security and defense of EU citizens.
The background to the project is the difficulties of the EU states in supplying Ukraine with sufficient ground-to-ground and artillery ammunition and missiles for the defensive war against Russia. An expansion of production should now prevent further bottlenecks in the Ukrainian armed forces and also ensure that the EU states remain capable of defending themselves and can keep sufficient supplies. The agreement still has to be formally confirmed by the Council of Member States and Parliament. After the regulation has been officially adopted, it could come into force by the end of July, according to EU information.
Zelenskyj: The counter-offensive is “not progressing quickly”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has admitted that his army’s counter-offensive is “not progressing quickly” – but has assured that Ukrainian troops are still advancing. “The offensive isn’t fast, that’s for sure,” said Zelenskyj in Prague after a meeting with Czech head of state Petr Pavel. “But we’re still advancing and not retreating like the Russians are doing,” he added.
With a view to the upcoming NATO summit in Lithuania, Zelenskyy confirmed that his country wanted to receive an “invitation” to join at the meeting. “We need honesty in our relations with NATO”. It was time to demonstrate “the courage and strength of this alliance”.
Czech President Pavel spoke out in favor of the alliance starting accession negotiations with Ukraine immediately after the end of the war. “It is also in the interest of our security, it is in the interest of regional stability and economic prosperity,” emphasized the former NATO general. The Czech Republic is also in favor of Ukraine’s accession negotiations with the EU beginning this year.
MAD warns of increasing espionage from Russia
Germany’s military counter-intelligence service (MAD) warns of increased espionage from Russia against the Bundeswehr. “Since the beginning of the illegal Russian war of aggression against Ukraine in February 2022, Germany has positioned itself by supplying weapons, ammunition and equipment and training members of the Ukrainian armed forces in Germany and is being enlightened even more intensively by the Russian services,” writes the military intelligence service its annual report, which was sent to the Bundestag and is available to the German Press Agency.
The MAD has received additional staff for its tasks. According to the report, the MAD has had 1,917 posts since January 2023 (2022: 1,824 posts; 2021: 1,632 posts). With a view to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, “strengthening counterintelligence and combating espionage and possible sabotage is more urgent than ever before,” according to the military counterintelligence service in its annual report. The MAD is the smallest of the German intelligence services. He is tasked with protecting the armed forces from espionage, defending against extremists, and security screening of soldiers and civilian employees.
jj/sti/AR/wa (dpa, afp, rtr)
This article will be continuously updated on the day of its publication. Reports from war zones cannot be independently verified.
Source: DW
