Western allies pledge precision rockets and missile systems to Ukraine
Western allies pledged precision rockets and missile systems to Ukraine on Friday, after President Volodymyr Zelensky called for sophisticated weapons to help retain control of the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut.
The European Union agreed to introduce price caps on Russian petroleum products to try to further limit Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war chest by targeting his key exports.
The announcements came shortly after Zelensky told a summit with EU leaders in Kyiv: “No one will surrender Bakhmut. We will fight as long as we can.
“If weapon (deliveries) are accelerated - namely longrange weapons - we will not only not withdraw from Bakhmut, we will begin to deoccupy Donbas,” he said of the eastern region of Ukraine.
The United States on Friday announced a new Us$2.2bn package of arms and munitions, which the Pentagon said included a new rocket-propelled precision bomb that could nearly double Kyiv’s strike range against Russian forces.
The ground-launched smalldiameter bombs (GLSDB), which can fly up to 150km (93
miles), could threaten key Russian supply lines, arms depots and air bases far behind the
front lines.
They potentially give Kyiv’s forces the ability to strike anywhere in the Russian-occupied Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, as well as the northern part of occupied Crimea. However, ‘the delivery of the GLSDB likely won’t be for several months due to contracting, production, and delivery timelines’, said Pentagon spokesman Lt Col Garron Garn, declining to say how many would be delivered.
France and Italy will deliver mobile surface-to-air missile systems, the French defence ministry said, in response to an urgent request from Kyiv to help protect ‘civilian populations and infrastructure from
Russian air attacks’.
The systems, called MAMBA or SAMP, are a vehiclemounted battery of mediumrange missiles designed to offer protection from airborne threats such as missiles and manned or unmanned aircraft.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, who had requested the weapons, tweeted his gratitude, saying the systems would ‘help us save thousands of lives’ from Russian attacks. Kyiv is also asking for fighter jets.
It has already secured promises from the West for deliveries of modern battle tanks and, after months of hesitation, Germany authorised the delivery of Leopard 1 tanks.
In Brussels, the EU, the Group of Seven industrialised countries and Australia agreed to cap the price of Russian refined oil products to accompany an embargo on ship deliveries of the products that comes into force on Sunday.
Already in December, the EU imposed an embargo on Russian crude oil coming into the bloc by sea and - with its G7 partners - imposed a US$60per-barrel cap on Russian crude exports to other parts of the world.