Germany says it will hand over the Patriot air defense system and missiles, while Russia claims it has captured another village.
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Germany will deliver a US-made Patriot air defense system and anti-aircraft missiles at a “critical time” as Kiev struggles to protect its energy system from Russian bombardment.
More than two years after launching its full-scale invasion, Russia has carried out three massive airstrikes on power plants and substations in recent weeks, prompting Kiev to make desperate calls for supplies of high-quality air defense systems.
“I am grateful to the Chancellor for the decision to supply Ukraine with another additional Patriot system as well as missiles for the existing air defense systems,” said Zelensky after a telephone conversation with Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday.
He described their conversation as “important and productive” and said: “I call on all other heads of state and government of partner countries to follow this example.”
Germany will hand over the Patriot system immediately, in addition to the air defense systems already delivered and planned, the German Ministry of Defense said in a post on X.
An April 10 German government summary of arms and military equipment deliveries to Ukraine listed two Patriot systems on a list of air defense items already delivered, making this the third from Germany.
Zelensky said last week that Ukraine needed 25 U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems to protect the country from Russian attacks.
After the Ukrainian War broke out in 2022, Germany abandoned its traditional pacifist stance and became Ukraine’s second largest supplier of military aid after the United States.
In addition to the Patriots, Berlin has also supplied a wide range of other weapons, from artillery to armored fighting vehicles.
Pressure on the Eastern Front
At the front, “the situation on the Eastern Front has deteriorated significantly in recent days,” Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskii said in a statement on Saturday.
This came as Russia claimed control of a village near the industrial town of Avdiivka that it had captured in mid-February.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its troops had “liberated” the village of Pervomaiske in the Donetsk region, about 11 kilometers west of the largely destroyed Avdiivka.
Ukraine has not confirmed the loss. The army said on Friday that it had repelled attacks on the village.
On his Telegram channel last month, Syrskii wrote of “a significant intensification of the enemy offensive after the presidential elections in Russia.”
The commander-in-chief, who took office in February after Zelensky fired his popular predecessor General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, added that decisions would be made “to strengthen the most problematic defense areas through electronic warfare and air defense.”
According to Russia, ten people were killed in an attack by Ukraine
Meanwhile, in the southern Zaporizhia region on Saturday, a Kremlin-appointed official blamed Ukraine for a shelling that killed 10 people, including children.
The Tokmak city administration reported on Telegram that the shelling hit three apartment blocks on Friday evening.
According to regional director Yevhen Balitsky, five people were pulled alive from the rubble and 13 were hospitalized. The city fell to Russia at the start of the invasion.
Ukrainian authorities in Zaporizhzhia said Russia had attacked the region more than 400 times in the last day, including from aircraft.
Ukraine also said the situation around the eastern frontline town of Chasiv Yar was “difficult and tense” with the area under “constant shelling.”
Khasiv Yar is 20 km (12 miles) west of the town of Bakhmut, which was leveled by months of artillery shelling before being captured by Moscow last May.
Russia has recently been securing new territorial gains and seeking to crack down on Ukrainian units hampered by delays in the delivery of Western military aid.