Ukraine is forging ahead with embryonic plans for joint weapons production with a few of its international allies, top officials said, while the U.S. announced it was halting some arms shipments promised to assist Ukraine fight off Russia.
Those plans come at what appears to be a key point within the all-out war launched by Moscow nearly three-and-a-half years ago. A renewed Russian push to capture more Ukrainian land has put Ukraine’s short-handed defenses under severe strain, and Russian missiles and drones are battering Ukrainian cities. U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to search out a peace settlement, meanwhile, have stalled.
As Washington has distanced itself under U.S. President Donald Trump from Ukraine’s war efforts, an even bigger onus has fallen on European countries to pressure Russia.
French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday held their first direct telephone call in almost three years. Macron’s office said that in their two-hour conversation, the French leader underlined France’s “unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” and called for a ceasefire.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that officials are preparing with a way of urgency for upcoming meetings with European Union countries and other partners to discuss cooperation in weapons manufacturing.
“One in every of the important thing topics shall be weapons production – our joint investments, joint projects,” Zelenskyy said in his every day address on Tuesday evening.
Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announced that draft laws on joint weapons production with international allies is anticipated to be put to a vote within the Ukrainian parliament later this month. The proposed laws were shown to national defense corporations on Tuesday, Umerov said.
This system includes plans to create a special legal and tax framework to assist Ukrainian defense manufacturers scale up and modernize production, including constructing recent facilities at home and abroad, based on Umerov.
Earlier this week, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said during a visit to Kyiv that Germany goals to assist Ukraine manufacture more weapons more quickly. He was accompanied on the trip by German defense industry representatives.
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The U.S. is halting some weapons deliveries to Ukraine out of concern that its own stockpiles have declined too far, officials said Tuesday. Certain munitions were longer-term commitments promised to Ukraine under the Biden administration, though the Defense Department didn’t provide details on what specific weapons were being held back.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry summoned the U.S. chargé d’affaires, John Hinkel, on Wednesday to debate ongoing defense cooperation.
Deputy Foreign Minister Maryana Betsa thanked the U.S. for its continued support, but emphasized the “critical importance” of maintaining previously allocated defense packages, especially for bolstering Ukraine’s air defense.
Fedir Venislavskyi, a member of the Ukrainian parliament’s national security and defense committee, called the choice to halt the shipments “very unpleasant for us.”
“It’s painful, and against the background of the terrorist attacks which Russia commits against Ukraine, it’s a really unpleasant situation,” he told reporters in Kyiv.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Pentagon’s decision will help bring a settlement closer, because “the less weapons supplied to Ukraine, the closer the top of the (war) is.”
America has been Ukraine’s biggest military backer since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor on Feb. 24, 2022. Under Trump, there have been no recent announcements of U.S. military or weapons aid to Ukraine.
Between March and April, america allocated no recent aid to Ukraine, based on Germany’s Kiel Institute, which tracks such support.
For the primary time since June 2022, European countries surpassed the U.S. in total military aid, totaling 72 billion euros ($85 billion) compared with 65 billion euros ($77 billion) from the U.S., the institute said last month.
Washington’s latest decision could remove a number of the most formidable weapons in Ukraine’s battlefield arsenal.
Analysts say Ukraine’s European allies can fill a number of the gaps and supply artillery systems. But they don’t possess alternatives to the U.S.-made HIMARS missiles and air defense systems, especially Patriots, that are crucial to assist defend Ukrainian cities from Russian air attacks.
It’s not clear how much weaponry Ukraine possesses or what its most urgent needs are.
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