As the Ukraine military and financial help from the US has dried and it’s unlikely to resume any time soon, the European leading countries have turned to bilateral agreements to guarantee immediate assistance, and also signal to Europe and the world their long-term commitment to helping the Kiev regime.
After the UK signed an agreement with Ukraine in January, today both Germany and France have also entered into separate agreements with the war-torn country, as the situation in the frontlines becomes increasingly bad for it.
Both German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron face difficult times at home, with dismal poll numbers and vibrant opposition parties ready to replace them.
Scholz and Macron use the Ukraine war as a distraction and a PR space where they can generate ‘positive agenda’ moments for themselves.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has made quick visits to Berlin and Paris to sign the deals and promote his cause that has somewhat lost the prominence in the media.
ABC News reported:
“Zelensky met in Berlin with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who said Berlin was providing another 1.1 billion-euro ($1.2 billion) package of military aid, including 36 howitzers, 120,000 rounds of artillery ammunition and two more air-defense systems.
Scholz described the long-term security accord as a ‘historic step’. It’s Ukraine’s second such bilateral agreement after one signed last month with the U.K.”
Zelensky said more agreements are being negotiated with other countries. “’Ukraine has never yet had more valuable and stronger documents’, the president said.”
This long-term solidarity pledges come as Ukraine has gone back on the defensive in the war, facing ammunition shortage and a lack of personnel.
“’Two years after the beginning of this terrible war, we are sending a crystal-clear message today to the Russian president: we will not ease off in our support for Ukraine’, Scholz said. He put his country’s deliveries and pledges of military aid so far at a total 28 billion euros.”
The agreement would fund a military force capable of defending Ukraine now and in the future.
“In case of future Russian aggression, Germany ‘would provide Ukraine as appropriate, with swift and sustained security assistance’ and modern military equipment as needed, as well as seeking agreement on imposing ‘economic and other costs on Russia’, the accord states. It goes on state that Ukraine ‘will continue to implement an ambitious reform program’, which is essential to its ambitions to join the European Union and NATO.”
Scholz also renewed his appeal for US Congress to release more aid to Kiev.
“Zelensky said he thinks the majority of the American population supports his country’s cause. ‘I expect that the United States will not drop out’, he said. ‘I expect that in all of this a pragmatic American approach to us, protecting the security of the world, will be found’.”
Germany has become the second-biggest supplier of military aid to Ukraine after the US.
From Berlin, Zelensky flew to Paris to sign a similar security pact with France.
Reuters reported:
“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed a new long-term security pact with France on Friday, after securing a similar deal and aid from Germany, in a tour jolted by news of the death of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.”
Zelensky needs to urgently raise military assistance as Ukrainian struggle to hold back Russian forces about to conquer the eastern town of Avdiivka.
“‘Our cooperation yields results in the protection of life in Ukraine and our entire Europe’, Zelensky said on X upon arrival in the French capital, where he was welcomed by President Emmanuel Macron.
The security pact with France includes commitments by Paris to deliver more arms, train soldiers and send up to 3 billion euros in military aid to Ukraine in 2024, Macron’s office said.”
However, Kyiv has said that these security arrangements ‘in no way replace its strategic goal of joining NATO’.
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