Vilnius | Germany has announced a package of further military aid for Ukraine that includes 40 extra Marder armoured personnel carriers, another 25 old Leopard 1 tanks and two Patriot defence missile launching devices.
The German Defence Ministry said Tuesday that Germany also would give Ukraine another 20,000 rounds of artillery ammunition, 5,000 rounds of smoke ammunition, a reconnaissance and drone-defense package and a Luna drone system. There will also be five armoured recovery vehicles.
Germany, already one of the biggest providers of military aid to Ukraine, put the value of the latest package at nearly 700 million euros ($768 million).
German officials had promised a substantial new military aid pledge at the NATO summit in Vilnius but made clear their continued reluctance to agree to Ukraine's request for Taurus long-range cruise missiles.
Lithuania and several of its allies have beefed up security for the NATO summit, with as many as 12,000 troops backed by warships, air defence systems and artillery deployed for the two-day meeting.
Lithuanian authorities say almost 50 foreign delegations with 2,400 representatives are gathering in Vilnius, including 40 presidents or prime ministers and up to 150 other high-ranking politicians.
Germany supplied Patriot missile defence for the summit that starts Tuesday, while Spain provided short- to medium-range NASAM ground systems.
The summit in Lithuania's capital is being held about 30 km (20 miles) from the border with Russian ally Belarus, where the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was granted refuge following a short-lived revolt against the Russian authorities last month.
Border control measures were introduced last week at major airports, sea ports and on land borders with Lithuania's fellow European Union members Poland and Latvia.
Meanwhile, NATO warships are patrolling off the coast of Lithuania, including vessels from Germany, the United States, Italy and Poland, according to the commander of Lithuania's navy, Giedrius Premeneckas.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has urged all NATO members to meet the alliance's target of spending the equivalent of 2% of national economic output on defence.
According to new NATO estimates released last week, 11 of the 31 member countries will reach that target this year.
As the Western alliance's annual summit opened in Lithuania's capital on Tuesday, Sunak said Britain was devoting “record amounts” to defence, in part to make its industry “ready for the challenges ahead”.
“And that's something we need to see across NATO, starting with meeting the 2% commitment,” he said.
After Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014, NATO members committed to move toward spending 2% of gross domestic product on national military budgets within a decade. They are expected during this week's summit to set that level as a minimum target — a floor rather than a ceiling.
Sunak said NATO members “have witnessed the most terrible crimes and human tragedies in Ukraine” since Russia invaded its neighbour 16 1/2 months ago. He says the alliance has “come together like never before in support of Ukraine and with firm determination that Russia cannot succeed”.
Hungary's foreign minister says his country's ratification of Sweden's bid to join NATO is just a “technical matter” after Turkey's president indicated he would his country's opposition to the Scandinavian country joining the alliance.
In a Facebook post Tuesday, Peter Szijjarto wrote that the Hungarian government's position on Sweden “is clear: the government supports NATO membership, which is why we tabled a proposal to this effect in Parliament many months ago. It is now only a technical matter to complete the ratification process”.
Turkey and Hungary are the only NATO members that haven't yet ratified Sweden's accession documents.
Hungarian President Katalin Novak tweeted that she has asked Prime Minister Viktor Orban “to do everything possible to ensure that the #Hungarian Parliament also contributes to the enlargement of the defence #Alliance as soon as possible”.
