United to win: German initiative raises nearly €1 bln to strengthen Ukraine’s air defense

Nearly €1 billion was raised for this purpose through the German initiative to bolster Ukraine's air defense.

Germany's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced this during the visit of their department head, Annalena Baerbock, to Kyiv.

The German diplomatic service noted that Baerbock arrived in Ukraine at a crucial moment: a few days ago, the Russian Federation launched a new offensive on Kharkiv.

The purpose of the foreign minister's trip is to assure that, despite the worsening of the war zone, Germany and Europe will continue to stand by Ukraine firmly and will not stop supporting it.

"The global initiative to strengthen air defenses, which the Foreign Secretary recently launched with Defense Minister Pistorius, should also be considered in this context.

So far, almost a billion euros have already been collected to provide additional support to Ukrainian air defense," the diplomatic service emphasized.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted that work within the initiative's framework continues and added that this initiative also protects the security of EU countries from Russian aggression.

"Our support is based on a deep conviction that Ukraine will win this war. Putin speculates that we will eventually run out of air, but we have the willpower.

Germany, along with many other countries worldwide, firmly supports Ukraine. The people of Ukraine can count on this in the long term," Baerbock stressed.

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It should be noted that the German government launched an initiative on April 17 to find additional means of air defense that can be transferred to Ukraine. Berlin later reported that discussions were being made with Denmark and the Netherlands to finance the initiative.

Belgium also announced 200 million euros for the German initiative in April, and in May, Canada pledged more than $55 million.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius also announced his intention to purchase three HIMARS rocket launchers from the United States and transfer them to Ukraine.

Moreover, at the 22nd meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group ("Ramstein format"), which took place the day before, several countries expressed their support for Germany's initiative to find air defense equipment for Kyiv.

According to information, Belgium, Denmark, Canada, the Netherlands, and Norway will finance the initiative to find air defense equipment for Ukraine.

In addition, Belgium, Great Britain, Spain, Lithuania, Romania, the USA, and France promised to help with "equipment and missiles" (probably not necessarily within the scope of the German initiative), and Latvia expressed a desire to join the initiative.