Kyiv: Germany aims to help Ukraine manufacture more weapons more quickly as Kyiv looks to strengthen its negotiating position in peace talks with Russia about ending their more than three-year war, the top German diplomat said Monday.
“We see our task as helping Ukraine so that it can negotiate more strongly,” Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said during a visit to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, accompanied by German defense industry representatives.
US-led international peace efforts have failed to make progress on halting the fighting. Russian President Vladimir Putin has effectively rejected a ceasefire and hasn’t budged from his war goals.
“When Putin speaks of peace today, it is pure mockery,” Wadephul told a news conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha. “His apparent readiness to negotiate is only a facade so far.”
Russia’s invasion shows no sign of letting up. Its grinding war of attrition along the roughly 1,000-kilometre front line and long-range strikes on civilian areas of Ukraine have killed thousands of troops and civilians. Ukraine is outgunned and short-handed on the front line and international aid has been vital for Ukraine’s resistance against its neighbour’s bigger army and economy. Germany has been Ukraine’s second-largest military backer after the United States, whose continuing support is in doubt.
“We want to build new joint ventures so that Ukraine itself can produce faster and more for its own defense, because your needs are enormous,” Wadephul said while standing next to Sybiha. “Our arms cooperation is a real trump card — it is a logical continuation of our delivery of material,” Wadephul said. “And we can even benefit mutually from it — with your wealth of ideas and your experience, we will become better.” Wadephul was also due to meet with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The top German diplomat’s trip to Kyiv came less than 48 hours after Russia launched its biggest combined aerial attack against Ukraine over the weekend, Ukrainian officials said, in an escalating bombing campaign that has further dashed hopes for a breakthrough in peace efforts. Ukraine’s air force said Monday it detected 107 Russian Shahed and decoy drones in the country’s air space overnight. Strikes in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region left 2 civilians dead and eight injured, including a 6-year-old child.agencies