Ukraine updates: Germany's Scholz welcomes US aid package

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz hopes the US Senate will quickly decide to release billions in military aid to Ukraine after the US House of Representatives approved the aid package on Saturday.

"It is good news that the House of Representatives has now passed a resolution on further financial support for Ukraine with weapons," Scholz said. "We very much hope that there will soon be a decision by the Senate so that this aid from the US is secured for the future." 

Together with the support the Europeans have initiated for Ukraine, this is "a very clear message" to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Scholz added. 

According to Scholz, Putin cannot count on being able to sit out this war because support for Ukraine is waning. "It won't, we can hope for that now, and in that respect this is good news," the German chancellor said. 

Ukraine said its navy attacked a Russian Black Sea Fleet submarine salvage ship in Sevastopol on the annexed Crimean peninsula.

"Today, the Ukrainian Navy hit the Russian salvage ship 'Kommuna' in temporarily occupied Crimea. The nature of the damage is being verified," the defense ministry said.

"Kommuna" was the world's oldest active duty naval vessel. A double-hulled catamaran, she was laid down in St. Petersburg in November 1912 and commissioned in July 1915.

Meanwhile, the Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said Russian forces had repelled an anti-ship missile attack on one of their ships. The falling fragments caused a small fire, which was promptly extinguished, he said.

Ukrainian forces have repeatedly attacked Russian ships around Crimea with various weapons systems in recent months.

Ukraine's President Volodymyrr Zelenskyy on Sunday said that Patriot air defense systems and fighter jets were needed to defeat Russia.

"Patriots can only be called air defense systems if they work and save lives rather than standing immobile somewhere in storage bases," Zelenskyy said in a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

"Patriots" need to be in Ukrainian hands right now. Modern fighter jets are needed in Ukrainian skies. Russian missiles and Iranian "Shahed" drones must be defeated so that in the future, ruins cannot triumph over life anywhere,” Zelenskyy stressed.

The Ukrainian leader has made repeated calls for the weapons as Russia increases the frequency of long-range attacks on Ukraine's critical infrastructure.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has given his assurance that allies would come through for Kyiv.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova on Sunday said the US military aid package would aggravate global crises.

"The allocation of military assistance by United States to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan will worsen global crisis phenomena,"  Zakharova said on the Telegram messaging service.

Zakharova said that "assistance to the Kyiv regime is a direct sponsorship of terrorist activities."

Meanwhile, Russia's deputy ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, said in a post on X: "Nothing to celebrate here."

He wrote that the war would continue and "more money will be pocketed, more weapons stolen and tens of thousands of Ukrainians
will go to the meat grinder." 

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, with the two countries now locked in a prolonged war of attrition.

The International Criminal Court has issued a warrant of arrest for Russian President Vladimir Putin over responsibility for alleged war crimes committed in Ukraine since the start of the conflict.

US think tank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said it expects a spike in Russian missile and drone attacks after the US House of Representatives approved more aid for Ukraine.

"Russian forces will likely intensify ongoing offensive operations and missile and drone strikes in the coming weeks in order to exploit the closing window of Ukrainian materiel constraints," the Washington-based research organization said.

The ISW said that it would still be several weeks before the new US assistance would begin to affect the situation and said that "Ukrainian forces may suffer additional setbacks in the coming weeks while waiting for US security assistance."

The ISW said that despite the challenges facing Ukrainian troops — who were experiencing shortages in resources and ammunition — Russian forces had only achieved tactical gains during the past six months and "remain unlikely to achieve a breakthrough that would collapse the front line."

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday welcomed the decision by the US House of Representatives to approve a major military and financial aid package for Ukraine.

In a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, he called the outcome of the vote "a strong signal in these times." 

"We stand with the Ukrainians fighting for their free, democratic and independent country," Scholz added. 

US lawmakers on Saturday voted to pass the $61 billion (€57 billion) package, which had been stalled by political infighting for months.

The bill was part of a foreign aid and arms package valued at $95 billion (€89 billion) that also includes aid for Israel and Taiwan.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the move would "save thousands and thousands of lives."

The bill faced opposition from hardline Republicans who had been demanding that stronger controls first be put in place to curb the arrival of migrants at the southern US border.

dh,kb/nm,lo (AFP, Reuters, AP, dpa)