Latvian Defense Minister criticizes Germany for insufficient military aid to Kyiv

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News/Sputnik – September 03, 2022) Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks on Friday criticized German authorities for insufficient military assistance to Kyiv.

“I might upset (German Chancellor Olaf) Scholz or anyone else in Germany. But from the Latvian perspective…and that public opinion extends to the Baltic States, Poland and Ukraine , my wish would be that a country like Germany would give proportionally equal support to Ukraine as we do,” Pabriks told the Times newspaper, adding that Berlin’s contribution had been an inadequate “type of performance.”

The minister estimates that Germany’s military aid to Ukraine should be increased tenfold to 15 billion euros ($14.93 billion).

In August, Scholz said Berlin regularly supplied kyiv with “highly effective” weapons and pledged to continue deliveries if there was no escalation. He noted that upcoming weapon deliveries will include the Cobra radar system and Infra Red Imaging System Tail/Thrust Vector-Controlled (IRIS-T) air defense systems.

Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24 after the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk appealed for help to defend against Ukrainian forces. In response to the Russian operation, Western countries launched a massive sanctions campaign against Moscow and supplied arms to Ukraine.

Moscow protested to NATO countries against supplying arms to Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed that any shipments containing arms deliveries to Ukraine could become a target for Russia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed that supplying kyiv with Western weapons does not contribute to the resolution of the Ukrainian conflict and will only have negative consequences.