In major shift, Germany sends heavy weaponry to Ukraine as support grows for tougher bank sanctions

In a major diplomatic shift, Germany on Saturday night approved sending heavy weapons to Ukraine to assist in the fight against the Russian invasion of that country, a move that comes as support grows in the West to impose a painful sanction on Moscow’s banking system.

The movement in Europe came as the Ukrainian government led by President Volodymyr Zelensky put up a valiant fight against a much larger Russian army, holding down Kyiv during intense street fighting and bombardment. 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced his government will send 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 “Stinger” surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine “as quickly as possible.”

“The Russian invasion of Ukraine marks a turning point. It threatens our entire post-war order,” Scholz said. “In this situation, it is our duty to help Ukraine, to the best of our ability, to defend itself against Vladimir Putin’s invading army.”

Meanwhile, opposition has begun to wane to tougher sanctions that would cut Russia off from the SWIFT banking system that is a key to international commerce.

The changes show that Ukraine‘s willingness to fight on without any other countries joining in was beginning to impact sentiments in Europe and in the West.

Germany, meanwhile, had long maintained a policy of refusing to export deadly weapons to conflict zones.