Following pressure from Ukraine to ramp up its assistance, Germany is set to deliver Soviet-era Strela surface-to-air missiles to aid in resistance efforts to fight Russia’s invasion.
After weeks of delays, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced on Wednesday that deliveries were underway and professed support for additional arms exports to Ukraine.
“We are one of the biggest weapons suppliers in this situation. It doesn’t make us proud, but it’s what we must do to help Ukraine, and we are doing all this because we just don’t have a lot of arms we can supply ourselves,” Baerbock told the German Bundestag in a speech. “We are in contact with companies to push for more deliveries being possible.”
Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky threw some shade at Germany for slow-walking assistance during a speech before the Bundestag. He stressed that Germany’s economic punishment against Russia came “too late to stop war” and called for more assistance.
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When Russian tanks began rolling into Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz reversed course on the country’s policy of not sending weapons to conflict zones. Scholz’s administration greenlighted a package of 2,7000 Strela missiles to Ukraine in early March. The weapons came from old communist East German stockpiles but suffered weeks of delays in getting to Ukraine, according to Reuters.
The Strela missiles can be deployed against helicopters and other types of aircraft, helping Ukrainians thwart Russia’s attempts at gaining air superiority.
In addition to the Strela missiles, Baerbock announced that a first flight transporting refugees from Moldova will take place either Friday or Saturday, according to Reuters. Two weeks ago, Germany announced it would take in 2,500 Ukrainian refugees who were residing in Moldova.
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The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that Moldova, which neighbors war-torn Ukraine, has more than 370,000 refugees from the war.
