Calls for increase in military aid to press home Ukraine’s advantage

There are mounting calls for European countries to increase their military aid to Ukraine to help Kyiv press its advantage, after a successful counter-attack drove Russian forces out of a large swathe of territory in its east.

In an address to the European Parliament, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said Ukraine would ultimately win the war. “Their counter-offensive is advancing at an incredible pace, and they have forced Russia to retreat from many parts of their country,” Ms Marin said. “Ukraine will win this war with our support. There is no other alternative.”

Taking questions from MEPs, the EU’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell told the chamber he was trying to persuade member state governments that “a day or a week” can make a difference when it comes to the delivery of weapons before the harsh winter arrives and makes military operations more difficult.

“We need to step up our support for Ukraine because we are seeing that it is effective. Who would have predicted when [Vladimir] Putin launched his war that the Russian army would have been pushed onto the defensive or actually retreating? Who would have imagined that?” he asked MEPs.

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“We must make the most of this situation in which Ukraine has launched a counter-offensive and is scoring even greater successes than we had anticipated,” he continued, calling for the EU to “redouble” its efforts.

What's happening with Ukraine's counter-offensive?

Listen | 19:43

Dan McLaughlin reports on the counter-offensive carried out in recent days by Ukrainian Armed Forces that has recaptured swathes of territory from the Russians in the northeast and south. Will the operation change the course of the war and how will Russia react?

The Ukrainian government has asked the EU for “weapons, sanctions, and financial aid”, according to foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba.

On Tuesday, Mr Kuleba criticised Germany in unusually harsh terms. The German government has stalled over whether to supply Kyiv with battletanks, of which it is a major supplier within Europe, despite pleas from Ukraine to be granted its stores of decommissioned Leopard and Marder tanks.

“Disappointing signals from Germany while Ukraine needs Leopards and Marders now — to liberate people and save them from genocide,” Mr Kuleba tweeted.

“Not a single rational argument on why these weapons cannot be supplied, only abstract fears and excuses. What is Berlin afraid of that Kyiv is not?”

In the debate in Strasbourg, German MEP Michael Gahler of the Christian Democratic Union party told the chamber that if the Ukrainians had relied on EU military support alone without that of the United States and the United Kingdom, “it wouldn’t have been enough for Ukraine to survive”.

He received applause from fellow MEPs as he urged Mr Borrell to use his influence behind the scenes to “get the Germans where they should be” in taking “the lead in organising the delivery of tanks”.

Mr Borrell insisted that EU sanctions on Moscow, which include a ban on the sale of crucial technological components that Russia does not manufacture itself, were having a significant impact.

“If you look at the inside, the guts of a Russian tank destroyed on a Ukrainian street, you will see there the tremendous amount of electrical components manufactured by European countries in those tanks,” he said. “Russia is not able to overcome the huge military losses it has undergone.”

Nevertheless, he warned: “The war unfortunately will not be coming to an end soon.”