Russia wants to 'bomb Kharkiv to the ground,' Germany FM Baerbock says
The German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, called for heightened international support in providing additional air defence systems due to the potential danger of a significant Russian attack on Kharkiv, an eastern Ukrainian city.
- World
- DPA
- Published Date: 04:42 | 09 April 2024
- Modified Date: 04:42 | 09 April 2024
Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to "bomb Kharkiv to the ground," warned Baerbock. "He wants to destroy, he wants to deliberately destroy."
"If Russia launches a major offensive there, it would cause immeasurable suffering," she said.
"Unfortunately, the stocks, especially our own Patriot systems, are now pretty much exhausted," she said at a meeting with Moldovan Foreign Minister Mihai Popșoi in Berlin on Tuesday.
Baerbock said that the Patriot air defence systems available in Europe and around the world needed to be deployed to benefit Ukraine.
She said that a fund was being worked on with Ukraine and European partners to purchase air defence systems from other countries around the world and deliver them quickly.
She hoped that further information could be provided at the meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Italy next week.
- 37-year-old Simon Harris becomes Ireland's youngest-ever premier
- Zelenskyy inspects border fortifications amid tensions with Russia
- Nobel laureate British physicist Peter Higgs dead at 94
- UN: Not enough aid going into Gaza with Israeli restrictions
- Blinken doubts Israel to attack Rafah before U.S.-Israel talks