Boris Pistorius announced a new package of German military aid for Ukraine

On 21November, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius arrived in Ukraine on anunannounced visit. In this way, he expressed his support for Ukraine.

Accordingto German ntv , thepolitician arrived in the capital Kyiv by train early in the morning. Duringthe day, he met with his Ukrainian counterpart Rustem Umerov and UkrainianPresident Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The main topics of the meetings were thetraining of Ukrainian soldiers and military assistance.

Theminister's visit is intended to reaffirm Germany's support for Ukraine.

A solid package of military assistance

Inparticular, during a briefing in Kyiv, Boris Pistorius announced a new packageof German military aid for Ukraine. It will include 4 IRIS-T systems, 20,000155mm shells, anti-tank mines and other weapons.

"Thisis the fifth such package since last winter. And I am confident that it willhelp you in your fight against Russian aggression," the German defenceminister said, according to UNIAN.

When askedabout the possibility of supplying German Taurus missiles, Pistorius said that"there is no new information on Taurus". However, according to him,Germany plans to supply Ukraine with 140,000 155-mm missiles in 2024.

It shouldbe noted that this is the second visit of Boris Pistorius to Kyiv since he tookoffice as Minister of Defence. The last time he visited Kyiv was in February2023, when he presented a Leopard 2 toy tank to then-Minister of DefenceOleksiy Reznikov.

Why Berlin does not want to give Kyiv Taurusmissiles

AfterUkraine received the US long-range ATACMS missiles, Germany announced that itwould not supply Ukraine with Taurus long-range missiles for the time being.Berlin did not explain the reasons for this decision.

GermanDefence Minister Boris Pistorius said that Taurus missiles wouldnot change the course of Ukraine's war with Russia.

In May thisyear, retired colonel and Bundestag member Roderich Kiesewetter said that only150 Taurus missiles out of 600 ordered were in flight condition.

Ukrainianmilitary expert Oleksandr Kovalenko said in an interviewwith TSN that German Taurus missiles are difficult to integrate into Sovietaircraft, so Ukraine must first acquire modern fighter jets.

Meanwhile,in an interview with Die Welt ,Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that the country is preparing forthe worst winter in history and is trying to protect its power plants as bestit can. He drew Germany's attention to the importance of providing Ukraine withlong-range Taurus missiles, or at least air defence systems to protect againstair strikes.