Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 47,614
Thanks: 27,637
Thanked 14,458 Times in 10,262 Posts
|
re: Russia Poses Danger to UK & US Must End Prevarication Thats Prolonged The War
Zelensky Met With European Leaders to Ask For HELP
Britain to Send Ukraine Suicide Drones With Twice The Range of Himars
--Announcement that Kyiv will get hundreds of the kamikaze devices to strike back at Russia came as Volodymyr Zelensky met with Rishi Sunak
Ukraine’s Zelensky Arrived in Berlin and Was Received by Germanys’ Scholz
--Zelensky met with Germanys' Chancellor Olaf Scholz and thanked his government for its "fantastic solidarity" as he secured a big boost in military aid on his first visit to the country since Russia's invasion.
Ukraine War: Kyiv Not Attacking Russian Territory-Zelensky, as Russia Bombards Kyiv
--Russia has launched its' most intense rocket barrages on the Ukrainian capital since the war broke out.
BBC 17 MAY 2023
Russia bombards Kyiv
Germanys’ Change of Heart is Now Pivotal to The War in Ukraine
Zelensky arrived in Berlin from Rome, where he met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Pope Francis. He flew on a German government plane escorted over German airspace by fighter jets of the Luftwaffe air force, arriving in the middle of the night.
Wearing his trademark khaki combat trousers and a black sweater, the Ukrainian leader was first greeted by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier before he headed to the nearby chancellery to meet welcomed by Scholz with military honours.
Olaf Scholz’s about-turn on military aid policy will be transformative – and shows how German attitudes to the war are shifting. Unlike British or French politicians, Olaf Scholz doesn’t do pomp. Nor does he do charm. A man who screws up his eyes when he tries to smile, the German chancellor welcomed Ukraine’s president to Berlin on Sunday with characteristic stiffness.
Yet of all Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s meetings with fellow European leaders over the past few days – from Rome to Paris to Chequers today for more hardware and more embraces with Rishi Sunak – his day in Germany may be remembered as the most important. The announcement on the eve of his visit of a doubling of military aid to Ukraine to a total of more than €5bn finally brings Germany in from the cold. The consequences may take months to be seen on the battlefield, but in geo-strategic terms they are immediate.
Zelenskiy knows that he has perhaps only six to eight months for his counteroffensive to make sufficient inroads to force Russia out of the areas it seized in 2022 and, better still, out of lands it annexed in 2014. Doing this would also demonstrate to the west the effectiveness of the support given so far. He knows that if he cannot finish the job this year, he will have to continue into next year in even more difficult circumstances.
He sees the Chinese, the French and others showboating diplomacy not necessarily on Ukraine’s terms. At the same time he is aware that public opinion in several countries is wavering.
Most of all, he sees the lumbering figure of Donald Trump coming into view. Even the prospect of a return to the White House of a man who cannot say which side he supports provides succour to Vladimir Putin and the forces on the far right and far left in Europe who put the vague notion of “peace” ahead of international law, self-determination and human rights.
That is why the debate in Europe, and Germany in particular, is so important. Germans are told to pull their weight but not to throw their weight about. They pride themselves on Vergangenheitsbewältigung, their coming to terms with their past.
Yet in recent years among some sections of society, particularly Scholz’s Social Democrats, one wrong lesson was learned. These “salon pacifists” reinterpreted the phrase “never again” to mean never again going war, rather than never confronting tyranny. The terrible invasion of Iraq reinforced that view.
Ukraine has now shattered that, inserting a concept alien to several generations of “the good war”. But it has required two heaves to get there. The first was the Zeitenwende, the speech Scholz gave three days after Putin’s invasion in which he declared a new approach to hard power and an extra €100bn to be spent on reinforcing Germany’s ailing armed forces.
Having broken the mould so dramatically, the German chancellor returned to type, second-guessing each step, fearful of a backlash from his party. Relations became so toxic that the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, was prevented by the Ukrainians at the last moment from visiting Kyiv.
Zelenskiy feted all-comers but froze out the Germans, who complained they were not getting the credit for being one of the largest donors of military aid, amounting to more than €2bn. The problem was that it was offered grudgingly and delivered slowly.
Tensions reached a high in the autumn over the stalled delivery of German-made Leopard 2 tanks. Not only did Scholz refuse to send them, but he also held back re-export licences to Ukraine by other countries of the tanks. He eventually relented, arguing that his position had forced the Americans to release tanks too.
Zelenskiy Arrived in France to meet Macron After Germany visit
Russia Launched Exceptional Missile Attack on Ukrainian Capital Kyiv in Bombardment
Moscow is enraged by the British supply of missiles but Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said it would “not affect” the course of the war "but will lead to retaliatory actions by the Russian Federation”
Zelensky Met PM Sunak as More Ukraine Weapons Pledged
The UK will send hundreds of air defence missiles and armed drones to Ukraine on top of the Storm Shadow cruise missiles announced last week.
The move means the UK is going further than any other country in providing weapons with the potential to tip the battlefield in Ukraine's favour.
Earlier, President Volodymyr Zelensky met the UK's Rishi Sunak as part of his tour of Western allies.
Mr Zelensky said it was important for the West to send fighter jets as well.
Ukraine Receives Jet Fighter Support Pledge From UK & Netherlands
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Dutch premier Mark Rutte agreed to build an international coalition to provide Kyiv with F-16s fighter jets.
The UK prime minister said providing fighter jets was "not a straightforward thing", although he did say the UK would form "a key part of the coalition countries" providing that support.
Ukraine is continuing to prepare for a much-anticipated counter-offensive against Russian forces.
Last week, Mr Zelensky told the BBC his country needed more weaponry before it could launch the attack.
On Monday, the Ukrainian president had about two hours of talks with Mr Sunak at Chequers, near London.
He arrived on British soil for a surprise visit after a whirlwind tour of Western Europe that also took in Rome, Berlin and Paris.
Mr Zelensky said Ukraine and the UK were "real partners", while Mr Sunak's spokesman described the meeting as "warm and collegiate".
The Storm Shadow cruise missiles can be used to destroy Russia's positions on occupied Ukrainian territory.
If Ukraine can destroy Russia's command centres, logistics hubs and ammunition depots in occupied territory, then it may prove impossible for Moscow to continue resupplying its frontline troops in places.
This is what Ukraine did so successfully in Kherson last year, forcing the Russians to withdraw almost without a fight. It will now be hoping to repeat the process with the help of Western-supplied munitions.
President Zelensky's repeated calls for Nato to send F-16 jets are being met with delays and obfuscations, for several reasons.
The Ukrainian air force has trained its pilots on F-16s, which the RAF do not use, but such training takes months, not days.
Logistics, maintenance and the need to find suitable runways are all important too.
Finally, there is the question of escalation. Nato is struggling to balance giving Kyiv the maximum support it can, without getting directly drawn into this conflict.
If Nato does end up sending F-16 warplanes, however old they may be, then that, in Moscow's eyes, constitutes a major provocation by the West.
Mr Zelensky said he discussed the supply of Western fighter jets with Mr Sunak.
New jets were a "very important topic for us, because we can't control the sky", the Ukrainian leader added.
"We spoke about it and I see that in the closest time you will hear some, I think, very important decisions, but we have to work a little bit more on it," he said.
The UK has no plans to send fighter jets to Ukraine, according to the prime minister's official spokesman.
But No 10 said elementary training for Ukrainian pilots would begin this summer, along with British efforts to work with other countries on providing F-16 jets to Ukraine.
The prime minister's official spokesman also denied that any drones supplied by the UK would be used to hit targets inside Russia.
They would be used for the defence of Ukraine on Ukrainian sovereign territory, the spokesman said.
Mr Sunak said: "This is a crucial moment in Ukraine's resistance to a terrible war of aggression they did not choose or provoke.
"They need the sustained support of the international community to defend against the barrage of unrelenting and indiscriminate attacks that have been their daily reality for over a year."
In response, Russia said the new British weapons due to be supplied to Kyiv would only cause "further destruction".
"Britain aspires to position itself at the forefront of the countries that continue to pump weapons into Ukraine," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
European support
Ukraine secured a new defence aid package from Germany after talks in Berlin with Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday, taking its total military funding to nearly $7bn (£6.44bn).
Mr Zelensky described the new pledge of German Leopard tanks and anti-aircraft systems as "the largest since the beginning of the full-scale aggression" by Russia in February 2022.
France has promised dozens more light tanks and armoured vehicles after President Emmanuel Macron met his Ukrainian counterpart in Paris.
In February, Mr Zelensky visited London for the first time since the start of the war, during which he attended an audience with the King and addressed Parliament.
His latest visit to the UK comes ahead of a G7 gathering in Hiroshima, Japan, later this week which will also be attended by Mr Sunak.
|