Melnyk urges faster arms deliveries

He was satisfied with the recent announcement by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) that weapons such as the Iris-T air defense system would be sent to Ukraine, said Melynk on ZDF’s “Morgenmagazin”. “But if we are honest, 99 days of war, up to now not a single piece of heavy equipment has been delivered to the Ukraine from Germany.” The first weapons would probably not arrive until the end of June. “You see how precarious the situation is.”

On Wednesday in the Bundestag, the chancellor announced the delivery of the Iris-T and a locating radar to be used to detect artillery positions. Germany also wants to deliver four multiple rocket launchers from Bundeswehr stocks to the Ukraine.

The pledge is supported by a slim majority of people in Germany, according to a representative survey by the opinion research institute YouGov. 33 percent indicated that they fully or somewhat supported the announcement, 33 percent rejected them completely or rather.

In the past few weeks, the federal government had already made two commitments for the delivery of heavy weapons: 50 anti-aircraft tanks of the Gepard and 7 self-propelled howitzers 100 – modern artillery pieces with a range of 40 kilometers – to be delivered to Ukraine. But they haven’t gotten there yet. The opposition has repeatedly accused Scholz of hesitation over the past few weeks.

Melnyk said Ukraine’s first goal is to retake the territories occupied by Russia for 100 days. Ukraine sees the superiority with which Russia is waging the war of aggression, one fifth of Ukrainian territory is occupied. It also remains the goal to bring back Crimea, which has been annexed since 2014.

Selenskyj’s visit to Germany conceivable

The President of the Ukrainian Parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, can imagine that Head of State Volodymyr Zelenskyj will visit Germany if the war develops positively for Ukraine. “When victory approaches, I think he (Zelenskyj) will make visits to different countries and come to Germany for an official visit,” said Stefantschuk of the German Press Agency after a conversation with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) in Berlin according to official translation.

Stefantschuk also invited Scholz to speak in the Ukrainian Parliament Rada. “He thanked me and now we can only hope that he will accept the invitation,” said the speaker. “I’m very optimistic. That’s why I’ll hope that after thanking him, he will also accept the invitation.” (dpa)