Zelensky blames Germany for ‘blocking’ Nato weapons supply
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accuses Germany of preventing the delivery of defensive weapons to his country.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Germany of obstructing the supply of NATO weapons to Kiev, which witnesses the theatrics of tensions with Russia.
In an interview for Italian newspaper La Repubblica published by his office Tuesday, Zelensky said "Germany has recently prevented us from getting anti-drone rifles and anti-sniper systems from NATO, which are exclusively defense tools."
"Don't we have the right to have them in the eighth year of the war? Obviously, we do," the Ukrainian President added.
In response to a question about obstructing the supply of NATO weapons to Kiev, a spokesperson for Germany’s foreign ministry refused to comment "on the confidential decisions at the heart of the (NATO) alliance at this stage."
On her account, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock evaded answering the same question at her first foreign ministers' conference in Brussels, briefly saying that “the EU stands in full solidarity with Ukraine.”
The United States had supposedly prepared $200 million worth of military supplies to Ukraine over the past few weeks. However, Washington is holding off on delivering the package despite Ukrainian and congressional appeals, people familiar with the issue told NBC News.
Russia said last Thursday escalating tensions over Ukraine could lead to a reoccurrence of the Cuban missile crisis, which took place in 1962 and brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.
Deputy Russian foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov made the comment when asked if the current situation could turn into something that resembles the Cold War standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Ukraine receives new batch of Javelin anti-tank missileshttps://t.co/qP0bzSwLZw pic.twitter.com/BMQVNFSLAt
— Defence Blog (@Defence_blog) June 18, 2020
In the last few months, Kiev has managed to purchase some defense systems including the FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank missile system, and Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones.
