BERLIN, September 18. /TASS/. Germany will allocate another package of assistance to Ukraine, which will include munitions among other things, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in an interview with the Bild newspaper ahead of a Contact Group meeting at the Ramstein Air Base.
"Yes. We will supply additional munitions: high-explosive and mortar rounds, anti-mine rockets," he said when asked whether another package of assistance to Kiev is planned.
"Munitions are what Ukraine needs most of all," the German defense minister stressed. "Apart from that, we will help with defense vehicles and demining systems. We have also taken care about the coming winter: we will send clothes, power and heat generators. The package will be worth 400 million euro."
Touching upon possible supplies of Taurus long-range cruise missiles, the minister stressed that the German government must "thoroughly weigh each batch of weapons supplies." "It is necessary to clarify a lot of political, legal, military, and technical aspects. This is quite difficult. It has not yet been decided whether the federal government will supply Taurus cruise missiles or not," he said, adding that another aspect of Taurus supplies that needs to be looked at is whether such missiles could be used without Bundeswehr soldiers, either on the ground or remotely from Germany.
In a video address to the Crimean Platform forum on August 23, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that her country has provided Ukraine with assistance to a sum exceeding 22 billion euro, from tents and generators to tanks and air defense systems. Berlin, in her words, will continue its assistance to Ukraine "as long as it takes." Germany is Ukraine’s second after the United States supplier of weapons. Now, Kiev is asking for Taurus longer-ranger missiles but Berlin is in no hurry to make a decision on this matter.
Russia has raised the topic of continuing weapons supplies to Ukraine more than once. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said earlier that Moscow will continue attracting the world community’s attention, including within the UN Security Council, to the issue of Western weapons supplies to Ukraine.