Countries simultaneously sent thousands of weapons to Ukraine

Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said on March 23 that Sweden would send an additional 5,000 anti-tank weapons to Ukraine, in addition to the 5,000 already provided. Ms. Linde called the decision “historic”.

Meanwhile, the German Press Agency reported that German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht had asked the armed forces of Germany to supply 2,000 artillery shells from the German stockpile to Ukraine.

Both Sweden and Germany pledged to increase their defense budgets after the outbreak of conflict in Ukraine. Sweden recently announced it would increase its defense budget to 2% of GDP “as soon as possible”, an increase of about a third from the current level.

Last month, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also announced that it would increase the defense budget to 2% of GDP and invest $113 billion in armament, including Israeli drones and F-fighter jets. 35 of America.

Britain is expected to supply Ukraine with about 6,000 new missiles to support Kiev in the context of the operation military Russia shows no sign of stopping. The British Prime Minister’s Office announced on March 23 that the UK would work with allies to increase military and economic support to Ukraine, strengthen Kiev’s defenses against the military operation of the UK. Russia.

It remains unclear when and how arms from Germany, Britain and Sweden will be delivered to Ukraine. The German government announced last week that details of arms deliveries to Ukraine would no longer be made public, apparently to avoid Russian intelligence tracking their routes.

Russia has repeatedly criticized the US and its allies’ aid to Ukraine with weapons as a dangerous act to escalate the situation, and warned that convoys carrying foreign weapons to Kiev could become “legitimate targets”. ” of Russian forces.

Speaking at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on March 17, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said that “almost every day Russia sees reports from the capitals of Western countries about the flights to the United Nations. new goods, including various weapons, to Kiev”.

The US and Western countries were initially quite cautious when only providing simple weapons and equipment such as helmets and bulletproof vests to Ukraine. However, currently, in the arms shipments to Ukraine, there are also drones capable of destroying Russian tanks and artillery at a distance of tens of kilometers.

Aleksey Danilov, head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said that if Russia attacked a vehicle carrying Western weapons to Ukraine, NATO would consider this as a reason to activate Article 5 of the treaty. conventions of the union protect members. Article 5 provides for “collective defense”, meaning that an attack on one member of the alliance will be treated as an attack on the entire alliance.