‘It’s speed that life depends on’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged Western allies to quicken their military support for Ukraine, telling a major international security conference that delays would play into Russia’s hands as the invasion approaches its first anniversary.
‘‘There is no alternative to speed, because it’s speed that life depends on,’’ Zelenskyy told the Munich Security Conference in Germany.
Ukraine depends on Western weapons to thwart Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ambition to seize large areas of the country. The military aid has become a test of foreign governments’ resolve in light of increasing financial costs.
About 40 heads of state and government, as well as politicians and security experts from almost 100 countries, are attending the three-day Munich gathering amid fears that the fighting in Ukraine could invite a new Cold War.
In his plea for more Western weapons, Zelenskyy compared Ukraine’s struggle against the Russian invasion to the biblical fight between David and Goliath. He vowed that his country would ultimately prevail, but warned that Russia ‘‘can still destroy many lives’’.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who has been one of Ukraine’s main backers, renewed pledges to help but also insisted that Kyiv’s allies must not be hasty.
Berlin agreed last month to deliver German-made Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine, and to grant other countries permission
to do the same. Scholz urged ‘‘all who can deliver such battle tanks’’ to do so, and said Germany would do what it could ‘‘to make this decision easier for our partners’’, such as training Ukrainian soldiers or helping with logistics.
The need to supply Ukraine with billions of dollars’ worth of military aid has sometimes strained allied countries. After receiving Western pledges of tanks and more ammunition, Kyiv is now hoping for fighter jets, but some countries have balked at sending them.
For the first time in two
decades, conference organisers did not invite Russian officials to Munich.
Polish President Andrzej Duda said Russia’s invasion had to be stopped or it would not end with Ukraine. ‘‘So there is no other option but for us to support Ukraine as much as we can.’’
Meanwhile, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the US intelligence community estimated that more than 30,000 Wagner Group mercenaries had been killed or wounded while fighting in Ukraine on behalf of Russia.
About half of the Wagner dead had been killed since December, Kirby said. The US believed that about 90% of those killed were convicts who Wagner pulled out of prison to join the fight.
■ The first class of 635 Ukrainian fighters has finished a five-week advanced US training course in Germany on sophisticated combat skills and armoured vehicles that will be critical in the coming spring offensive against the Russians, the Pentagon says.
Spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder said additional training was already under way at the Grafenwoehr training area, and would involve about another 1600 Ukrainian troops.
Defence leaders have called the latest training programme key to expanding Ukraine’s ability to launch a coordinated offensive, teaching its military to effectively move and coordinate its company- and battalion-size units in battle, using combined artillery, armour and ground forces.
■ A reshuffle of the Russian military elite hints at growing friction between the top brass and a pro-Kremlin former Chechen rebel whose troops are fighting in Ukraine.
New commanders for four out of five of Russia’s ‘‘military districts’’ were announced yesterday. They include Lieutenant-General Andrei Mordvichev, who replaced Colonel-General Alexander Lapin as commander of the central military district.
Mordvichev led Russian troops last year in the fight for the Ukrainian port of Mariupol and was praised by Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman leader of the Russian region of Chechnya, as ‘‘the best commander’’.
By contrast, Lapin had been heavily criticised by Kadyrov, who was made a colonel-general in Russia’s army by Putin last October.
Last July, after his troops were lauded for seizing Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine, Kadyrov began lambasting Lapin publicly, calling him talentless and claiming that he was ‘‘protected from above by leaders on the general staff’’.