For “as long as it takes,” the G7 pledges to help Ukraine.
The G7 pledged to help Kyiv for “as long as it takes” on Tuesday after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked for greater air defense capabilities. The G7 also warned Russia against using nuclear weapons in any way.
Following a spate of Russian failures on the battlefield in Ukraine, NATO said it was closely watching Russia’s nuclear forces. The alliance also said it was stepping up protection around critical infrastructure following recent attacks on gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea.
Once more, although with less force than on Monday, when dozens of strikes killed 19, injured more than 100, and knocked out power across the Ukraine in Moscow’s heaviest aerial offensive since the start of its invasion on Feb. 24.
According to local officials, further missile strikes resulted in at least one death in the town of Zaporizhzhia in southeast Ukraine and power outages in a portion of Lviv in western Ukraine. Earlier, for a second day, air raid sirens wailed throughout Ukraine.
Zelenskyy told G7 leaders in a virtual meeting where he once more ruled out peace negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, “When Ukraine receives a sufficient quantity of modern and effective air defense systems, the key element of Russia’s terror, rocket strikes, will cease to work.”
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The first of Germany’s four IRIS-T air defense systems that it agreed to send to Ukraine was delivered on Tuesday, according to a source in the German defense ministry.
Later, the White House said that the United States was accelerating the delivery of advanced NASAMS air defenses to Ukraine. Over $16.8 billion worth of military aid from Washington has been given to Ukraine during the conflict.
The government of Zelenskyy has mixed gratitude for such assistance with cries for powerful weapons and faster deliveries.
In a statement, the G7 nations—the United States, Germany, France, Japan, Britain, Italy, and Canada—promised to continue providing Ukraine with “financial, humanitarian, military, diplomatic, and legal support…for as long as it takes.”
Additionally, it called “indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilian populations” war crimes and threatened to hold Putin accountable.
