Germany pledges €1bn military aid to Ukraine, announces joint drone production and energy repairs

Germany won’t be intimidated into dropping its support for Ukraine, chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Sunday as he announced €1bn ($1.1bn) in military aid during a visit to Kyiv. Merz said Germany would fund the joint production of drones designed to intercept Russia’s jet-powered drones, adding that “significant technical breakthroughs” in recent weeks were speeding up production. Speaking alongside Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Merz also announced €350m for repairs to the energy sector.

German officials said company executives who travelled with Merz had signed 14 agreements with Ukraine worth about €6.6bn. They included an agreement with Germany’s Diehl Defence for the supply of IRIS-T air defence missiles, as well as a deal for radar equipment with Hensoldt and for jet drone interceptors with Quantum Systems.

Air raid sirens and explosions rang out ⁠repeatedly across the Ukrainian capital during the German chancellor’s visit. A Russian drone hit Kyiv’s key Northern Bridge over the Dnipro River, marking the fourth consecutive day that Russia has targeted bridges used by tens of thousands of residents commuting between the city’s two banks. Video footage showed cars driving across the bridge as the drone plunged into the roadway and exploded in a burst of fire. Later on Sunday, a Russian ⁠airstrike ​hit Kharkiv, Ukraine’s ⁠second-biggest ⁠city, ​killing ‌one ‌person ‌and injured another six, mayor ‌Ihor Terekhov ​said ⁠on Telegram.

In Kyiv, Merz said Germany’s financial help was not only about protecting Ukraine’s territorial integrity. “We do it deeply in our own interest, for it is a matter of Europe’s security,” he said, ​adding that Russia was carrying out cyber-attacks and disinformation campaigns targeting European democracy. Russia has said accusations of hybrid warfare are baseless and the result of anti-Russian hysteria.

Zelenskyy said on Sunday he believed Russia might have ⁠shared jet-drone technology with its ally North Korea. Earlier in the war, ⁠North Korea supplied Russia with millions of artillery shells, and it has since provided ballistic missiles that Moscow regularly uses ⁠to attack Ukrainian cities. Asked if Russia had shared with North Korea ​the technology behind its latest generation ‌of jet-powered drones, ‌Zelenskyy told journalists: “They [Russia] are sharing with North Korea all the technologies. ‌I don’t know about the ballistic and etc but I think yes, because North Korea helped them with missiles.”

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military has again used drones to ⁠deliver food and medicine to the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky ⁠in southern ⁠Ukraine, ​ foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said on Sunday. Oleshky, a frontline town ⁠on the Dnipro River, which separates Russian and Ukrainian forces, has become “a hell on earth” under Russian occupation since 2022, according to residents. Sybiha, who has previously accused Russia of starving residents, said the latest delivery contained almost four metric tons of food and medicine. Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said last month that Russia had not ​agreed ​to Ukrainian proposals to ​allow civilians to evacuate.

As Zelenskyy on Sunday said the US wanted to hold a new round of peace talks with Ukraine and Russia by the end of October, India said it was seeking a greater role in brokering an end to the war, the foreign minister said. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said at a Munich Security Conference in New Delhi on Sunday that India had been advocating for a peace deal “for many years, and in recent months we have got a little bit more involved beyond advocacy, so we have conversations with both Russia and Ukraine in this regard”. He said India was starting with Black Sea safety of shipping but also including discussions about grain and energy exports and “on non-attack possibilities”.