Pistorius wants to build new high-tech weapons with Ukraine

Kyiv (dpa) - German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius wants Germany to build new weapons systems together with Ukraine. To this end, cooperation between the two countries is to be further expanded, said Pistorius in Kyiv, where he arrived this morning for a visit that had not been publicly announced. He explained that the main purpose of his trip was to strengthen this cooperation as part of a strategic partnership. 

“Germany and Ukraine are strategic partners who will both profit from the cooperation. This will give rise to numerous new projects,” the minister said. “The focus will be on jointly developing state-of-the-art unmanned systems across all ranges, especially for deep strike operations. This is how we strengthen the security of our countries,” Pistorius said.

Deep strike refers to the capability to destroy key targets situated deep inside the territory of an enemy state. NATO’sEuropean partners still have “capability gaps” in the area of long-range weapons. Pistorius believes that the NATO states should plug these gaps as quickly as possible. He said that the German government wanted to establish further German-Ukrainian joint ventures.