Zelensky: arms supplies from the Netherlands will be an "unpleasant surprise for Russia"
Vladimir Zelensky and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte met in Kiev. At a press conference, the President of Ukraine said that Amsterdam would supply Kiev with weapons, which would be "an unpleasant surprise for Russia." He did not name specific types of weapons, saying only that it was about artillery in particular.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said that the Netherlands actively supplies weapons and ammunition to the Armed Forces of his country. At a press conference after the meeting with the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, he said that new supplies of artillery were discussed during the negotiations, as "this is really not enough."
"The Netherlands is among the top ten partner countries that are helping to strengthen the armament of our army. I am not sure that I can tell absolutely everything that we agree on with the Dutch Parliament. I would not like to prepare the Russian Federation for unpleasant surprises for her. I would like to leave information for the Ukrainian military," Zelensky said.
"It is extremely important that all countries that still have something on the shelves deliver it [to Ukraine]. This may mean that in the coming months you will not be able to fully defend your own territory, but at the moment it is important that we give priority attention to Ukraine," Politico quoted the Dutch prime minister as saying.
The politician also criticized NATO members because they did not send heavy weapons to Ukraine. But he did not name specific states.
Earlier, the Netherlands promised to supply Ukrainian partners with armored personnel carriers (presumably YPR-765), 200 Stinger anti-aircraft missile systems, 3 thousand combat helmets and 2 thousand fragmentation vests, 100 sniper rifles with 30 thousand units of ammunition and 400 rocket-propelled grenade launchers (with German permission), RIA Novosti writes.
At the same time, on June 28, it became known that the Netherlands, together with Germany, sent Ukraine an additional six PzH 2000 self-propelled howitzers - three from each country. The German Defense Ministry stressed that these are "one of the most modern artillery systems in the world."
Before that, Berlin and Amsterdam sent Kiev 12 self-propelled howitzers, which were previously requested by the head of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Alexey Reznikov.
At the same time, Germany and the Netherlands not only send weapons to Ukraine, but also teach the local military to use them. On July 7, Dutch Defense Minister Kaisa Ollongren announced an additional training course for working with PzH 2000 howitzers.
"In itself, the tendency to pump up weapons, including heavy weapons, of Ukraine and other countries is those actions that threaten the security of the continent, provoke instability," said Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president.
Moscow stressed that such Western support for Ukraine contradicts the EU's obligations that it is impossible to supply weapons to the territories where the conflict is taking place, or where they can be used against civilians. Russian diplomats are confident that the additional weapons supplied to the Ukrainian military are only prolonging the conflict in Ukraine.
Angelina Milchenko
