UKRAINE LATEST | Germany announces record €2.7bn in weapons aid
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President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet Pope Francis, Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni and other top officials during a visit to Rome and the Vatican on Saturday, before travelling to Berlin. Germany is preparing a military aid package for Ukraine worth some €2.7bn (R56.6bn), the nation’s defence ministry announced.
The record large package is intended to continue to support Kyiv in its defence against Russia and will include material from the areas of artillery, air defence, and armoured combat vehicles including main battle tanks.
Ukraine's foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said before a meeting with European foreign ministers in Sweden that Western countries should stop asking when Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russia will start and instead focus on providing the equipment it needs to be successful, Ukraine's.
“When you fight a war you need everything, from medical vehicles to transport injured soldiers to long-range missiles, armoured personnel carriers and F-16s,” Kuleba told reporters at the meeting venue near Stockholm. “Instead of asking when the counteroffensive will begin, ask: have I done enough for the Ukrainian counteroffensive to begin and to be successful?”
US secretary of state Antony Blinken and Kuleba spoke about preparations for the Ukrainian counteroffensive in a call on Friday, the state department said. They discussed “how contributions from international partners can support” the success of the counteroffensive, the department said.
Russia attacked Ukraine’s capital with drones early on Saturday for the sixth time since the beginning of May.
Apart from this attack, Ukraine's southern Mykolayiv and northern Khmelnitskiy regions faced strikes as well. Over 15 were directed on the southern city of Kherson and the nearby areas over the past day. Two people were killed and four injured.
Ukrainian forces pushed Russian troops back to regain some territory in the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut, officials in Kyiv said, as Russia acknowledged a flurry of attacks along the front line.
Kremlin troops around Bakhmut, which has been besieged in brutal running battles for almost a year, pulled back as much as 1.5km in some areas over the last 24 hours, Ukrainian military spokesperson Serhiy Cherevatyi told Rada TV on Friday. It wasn’t clear if the stepped-up action around Bakhmut was part of Ukraine’s counteroffensive.
Russia’s defence ministry said its troops had withdrawn close to a reservoir north of Bakhmut to set up a new defensive line with more “favourable conditions”.
Putin wants additional measures to stop people from leaving the country, according to a document published by Kremlin. Hundreds of thousands fled after Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022 and later announced a mobilisation when his army suffered a series of setbacks.
According to his order, “emigration from Russia has increased because of changed social economic conditions and it is necessary to adopt additional financial, social and other mechanisms to keep human capital and reduce Russian population outflow abroad.”
China will send a special envoy to Kyiv on Monday, marking the first high-level visit from the Chinese government since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine almost 15 months ago.
Meanwhile Poland’s defence ministry said a flying object, probably an observation balloon, entered the Nato member’s airspace from Belarus to the east. Troops are searching for the object after it disappeared from radar near the town of Rypin, some 150km northwest of Warsaw, the ministry said.
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