KYIV-Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday heaped pressure on Western allies to provide Kyiv with more heavy weapons to fight Russia on the eve of a key donor meeting.
A day after a helicopter crash outside Kyiv killed one of his key ministers, the Ukrainian leader called out Germany for its hesitance to supply its modern Leopard tanks -- unless the United States also gives tanks.
“There are times where we shouldn’t hesitate or shouldn’t compare,” Zelensky told the annual World Economic Forum gathering in Davos via video-link.
“When someone says ‘I will give tanks if someone else will also share tanks’... I don’t think this is the right strategy to go with.”
Zelensky’s latest impassioned plea for weapons comes a day before the United States, Kyiv’s main backer, convenes a meeting of around 50 countries including all 30 members of the NATO alliance at the US-run Ramstein military base in Germany to discuss military aid to Ukraine.
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“The main message there (in Ramstein) will be more support and more advanced support, heavier weapons, and more modern weapons, because this is a fight for our values,” NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said in Davos on Wednesday.
Many of Ukraine’s allies have announced plans to step up their military support to Kyiv this month despite the risk of antagonising Russia, notably Britain, which over the weekend became the first Western nation to pledge heavy tanks.
The United States has promised to send its powerful Bradley armoured fighting vehicles, while France has offered its highly mobile AMX-10 RCs offensive weapons long seen as off-limits by hesitant Western nations. Sweden announced on Thursday it would supply its modern long-range Archer artillery units.
In Ukraine, air raid sirens wailed early on Thursday in Kyiv and throughout the country, a day after a helicopter crash outside the capital killed the interior minister and 13 others near a kindergarten. Zelensky said the investigation into the accident was ongoing, with several theories being examined.
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Sweden plans to send Archer
artillery to Ukraine: PM
Sweden on Thursday pledged to send its Archer artillery system, a modern mobile howitzer requested by Kyiv for months, to Ukraine along with armoured vehicles and anti-tank missiles.
Speaking at a press conference, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said his government had agreed on a three-part military support package for Kyiv, including “the first decision on starting deliveries of the artillery system Archer to Ukraine”.
Sweden, which has broken with its doctrine of not delivering weapons to a country at war, will also send 50 CV-90 armoured vehicles and NLAW portable anti-tank missiles, the government said. “Military support is decisive,” Kristersson said, as “it can change who retakes the initiative this winter” on the front in Ukraine. The domestically developed Archer artillery system is composed of a fully automated howitzer mounted on an all-terrain vehicle, which allows the gun to be remotely operated by the crew sitting in the armoured cab.
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Thursday’s decision meant the Swedish Armed Forces would be given the task to “make the preparations to begin delivery of the artillery system Archer to Ukraine”.