Ukraine and Germany signed a $1.5 billion weapons deal on Sunday to help counter a surge in Russian drone attacks, as air raid sirens and fresh strikes greeted German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Kyiv.
The agreement includes combat drones and support for Ukraine’s battered energy sector, which Russia is targeting to cut heating and power during the freezing winter, President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X, Dawn reported, citing AFP.
Built together
The deal provides for joint production of anti-jet drones, Merz told a joint news conference with Zelensky. Ukraine has repeatedly asked for advanced interceptors to shoot down Russia’s new fast, jet-powered drones and its ballistic missiles.
“Significant technical breakthroughs have already been achieved in this area in recent weeks,” Merz said. “Production is now being ramped up. This strengthens Ukrainian air defence quickly and significantly. We are supplying standoff weapons, combat drones and satellite technology so that Ukraine can also target Russian launch sites.”
Merz said support for Ukraine was vital for Europe’s own security. “If Russia is not stopped, its war machine will sooner or later turn against us,” he said on arrival.
“These are war crimes”
Merz saw daily life in a city under fire. Sirens wailed repeatedly, including as Zelensky showed him the National Academy of Sciences, hit by a Russian drone on Monday in an attack that killed two people.
“We can see the entire pointlessness of this war at this place,” Merz said. “These barbarous attacks on the civilian population of Ukraine must stop. These are war crimes that are being committed daily here.”
Bridges under attack
On the day Merz arrived, a Russian strike hit Kyiv’s Northern Bridge over the Dnipro River, damaging the road and the hot water supply, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. The bridges linking the two halves of the city have been hit repeatedly over four days. Russia’s Defence Ministry confirmed the strike, and said it had also hit two cargo ships carrying military equipment to Odesa.
Klitschko has said the capital, largely spared the worst destruction of the front line for more than four years, should now be on a war footing. Round-the-clock attacks have hit homes, petrol stations, schools, railways and communications.
Talks by the end of October?
Zelensky said the United States was proposing “technical level” talks between Ukraine and Russia by the end of October, possibly with mediators from the UAE.
“The American side is currently in contact with Ukraine and Russia and is proposing to somehow hold a meeting at the technical level in a trilateral format by the end of October,” he said. “I confirmed to them that our side is ready to support this timeline.” He said Ukraine was “open to the Emirates or another country proposed by the American side”.
Why it matters
The drone war has become the defining battle of this conflict. By building interceptors together, Germany is tying its own defence industry to Ukraine’s survival, while the prospect of US-backed talks offers a faint hope of an end to Europe’s bloodiest war since 1945. Read our earlier report on Merz’s arrival in Kyiv.
This article draws on reporting by Dawn and AFP.
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