German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that Germany, France and Poland agreed this Friday to immediately acquire more weapons for Ukraine on the world market, in addition to creating a new long-range rocket coalition.
“We will not relent in our support,” Scholz stressed at the end of his meeting with the French president, Emmanuel Macron; and the Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, in the Weimar Triangle format.
He indicated that the three agreed, among other measures, to “immediately acquire more weapons for Ukraine throughout the world market,” the expansion of the production of military equipment, also with partners in Ukraine, and the creation in the Ramstein Group “of a new coalition for long-range rocket artillery.”
The meeting came as Russia votes in an election that is sure to extend President Vladimir Putin’s rule.
Scholz had said Wednesday that he discussed what support Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky needs now. “He knows that he can trust us and today from here we renew this signal of support for kyiv,” he said after the meeting. And he added: “But there is also a very clear signal to Moscow: the Russian president must know that we will not relent in our support for Ukraine.”
The German leader noted: “From now on, we will acquire even more weapons for Ukraine on the general world market.”
“Secondly, the production of military equipment will be expanded, including through cooperation with partners in Ukraine,” he highlighted; while he noted that a new “coalition for long-range rocket artillery” will be created.
Scholz did not give details and the three leaders did not answer questions. Macron, meanwhile, reaffirmed France’s support for a plan initiated by the Czech Republic to buy ammunition and projectiles outside the European Union, but did not give details either.
“We want to help in every way possible here and now so that the situation in Ukraine in the coming weeks and months improves, not worse,” Tusk said.
Kiev’s forces hope to get more military supplies from Ukraine’s Western partners but, in the meantime, they are fighting a larger and better-supplied Russian army that is pressing hard at some points along the Ukrainian front line.
The European Union’s plans to produce a million artillery shells for Ukraine have fallen short, while aid to Ukraine in the United States is stalled by political differences.
“This is a serious moment,” Macron analyzed. “A new era is dawning, and we will be there. And the fact that the three of us are united on this day, determined with the same lucidity about the situation in Ukraine and determined never to let Russia win and to support Ukraine to the end, is a strength for us, our people, our security and our Europe”, he remarked.
Germany, France and Poland are among Ukraine’s key allies. Germany has become Ukraine’s second-largest provider of military aid after the United States and is increasing its support this year, although Scholz has faced criticism for refusing to send Taurus long-range cruise missiles.
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