European nations are struggling to agree on providing urgently needed weapons to Ukraine as Kyiv’s forces struggle to hold ground against invading Russian forces.
Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure faced waves of drone and missile attacks from Russia again on Friday, with at least eight people killed, including two children, in an attack in the central Dnipropetrovsk region. An attack on the city of Chernihiv on Wednesday killed at least 13 people.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for NATO allies to provide more U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine following this week’s two-day European Union Special Council meeting in Brussels.
“NATO has made it very clear that of the systems that are available in the NATO states, several could make a decision like ours — to hand over another system so that better protection is possible against the many attacks currently happening against Ukraine,” Scholz told reporters Thursday. “I would like to take this opportunity to emphasize this appeal once again. We have heard that there should be seven more, one of which is ours. And we hope that six more will be found in the NATO context.”
On the eastern frontlines, Ukraine’s forces say they are outgunned by Moscow’s troops and are slowly losing ground in several areas. Kyiv has made repeated urgent appeals to the West for more military aid, but the Western hesitancy has only encouraged Moscow, said security analyst Amanda Paul of the Brussels-based European Policy Center.
“The Russians have taken advantage of the failure of the West to give Ukraine sufficient military assistance, including air defense systems, to strike their infrastructure,” she said.
Individual European states have sent significant volumes of military aid to Ukraine. In March, the European Union boosted its bloc-wide fund to provide weapons for Kyiv by $5 billion.
A Czech-led initiative aims to supply Kyiv with up to 1.5 million artillery shells over the coming year and is set to deliver the first batch of 180,000 in the coming months.
However, Russian military production appears to be outpacing both Western military aid and Ukraine’s own ability to manufacture weapons.
Meanwhile, several EU states have stopped short of providing the longer-range weapons that Ukraine says it needs to target Russian supply lines. Germany has ruled out supplying its Taurus long-range missiles.
Analyst Paul said that while we’re now seeing some stronger statements from the German Chancellor or from French President Emmanuel Macron, there are still alot of words and not much action, which adds to the problem.
“It's only when the situation on the battlefield has become quite hot that Europeans have changed their narrative or began to supply Ukraine with more weapons, or at least make commitments,” Paul said. “Some countries have been concerned about the ramifications from Russia. We saw that for a very long period of time: ‘We don't want to escalate with the Kremlin.’ These sorts of narratives seem to disappear, at least vocally.”
Despite the battlefield struggles, Ukraine’s military continues to strike back at Russia. Its forces claimed to have downed a TU-22 strategic bomber over Russian airspace Friday, some 300 kilometers from its border. Kyiv said the plane had earlier taken part in the bomb attack on Dnipropetrovsk.
In a potentially major boost to Ukraine’s capabilities, its air force is set to receive the first of dozens of F-16 fighter jets from Denmark, the Netherlands and the United States in the coming months. A further three Dutch F-16s arrived at a Ukrainian training facility in Romania Wednesday. Several other NATO states, including Norway, Greece, and Belgium, have committed to supplying Ukraine with F-16s over the coming year.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on March 27 that the jets should appear over Ukraine in mid-summer.
“So far, everything is going according to plan,” Kuleba told reports in an online briefing.
