Ukraine calls on allies to speed up arms deliveries after Russian retreat

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the West to speed up weapons deliveries as Ukrainians move to consolidate control over the territories surrounding Kharkiv seized back from Russia. In a retaliatory move Russia struck several recaptured areas with missiles overnight.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba accused Germany on Tuesday of ignoring Kyiv’s pleas for Leopard tanks and Marder infantry fighting vehicles, saying Berlin offered only “abstract fears and excuses” for not providing such military hardware.

“Disappointing signals from Germany while Ukraine needs Leopards and Marders now — to liberate people and save them from genocide,” Kuleba tweeted, as Ukraine presses a counter-offensive to retake land in the east and south from Russian forces. “Not a single rational argument on why these weapons cannot be supplied, only abstract fears and excuses. What is Berlin afraid of that Kyiv is not?” he wrote, in unusually blunt language.

Ukraine’s lightning counter-offensive has recaptured 3,800 square kilometres (1,467 square miles) of territory in its northeastern Kharkiv region since Sept. 6, Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said on Tuesday.

Speaking live on Ukrainian television from the recaptured town of Balakliia, Malyar said that the territory recaptured from Russian forces consisted of more than 300 settlements and around 150,000 current residents. “The operation is ongoing. Its aim is the full liberation of Kharkiv region ... We believe that this will happen in the nearest future,” Malyar said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said overnight that in total Ukraine had “liberated more than 6,000 sq km (2,400 sq miles) of the territory of Ukraine in the south and in the east” since Sept. 1. This includes the figure mentioned by Malyar for the past week.
AFP.com, 13 Sept, 2022