Germany has been sharply criticized, both within the nation and by its allies abroad, that it is not doing enough. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told lawmakers that the IRIS-T surface-to-air missiles are the most modern air defense system the country has.
With this, we will enable Ukraine to defend an entire city from Russian air strikes, he said. The radar systems will also help Kiev locate enemy artillery, he added.
The weapons announcements came as a regional governor said Russian forces already control 80% of Sievierodonetsk, a key city in Russian attempts to complete the capture of the Donbas, where Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists have been fighting for years and where separatists controlled swathes of territory even before the invasion.
Luhansk region governor Serhiy Haidai said Russian troops were advancing on the city amid intense street battles with Ukrainian soldiers, although he noted that in some districts Ukrainian troops managed to push the Russians back.
The only other town in the Luhansk region that the Russians have not yet captured, Lysychansk, is still fully under Ukrainian control, but he admitted that it is likely to be the next to be attacked.
If the Russians manage to take full control of Sievierodonetsk in two or three days, they will start installing artillery and mortars and will attack Lysychansk more intensively, Haidai said.
Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said the country is losing between 60 and 100 soldiers a day in the fighting.
In southern Ukraine, a regional governor struck a more positive note, pointing out that Russian forces are withdrawing and blowing up bridges behind them.
They are afraid of a counterattack by the Ukrainian army, Vitaliy Kim, governor of the Mykolayiv region, said on the Telegram messaging app.
