Sweden pledged on Wednesday to bring the fearsome Archer artillery guns to Ukraine “as soon as possible” but also warned that future military aid will have to be balanced with its defense needs as a future member of the NATO military alliance.
Speaking during a visit to the Ukrainian capital, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said the Archer howitzers, as well as the 51 infantry fighting vehicles and anti-tank weapons Sweden has promised, together “will make a significant contribution to the fighting power of Ukraine”.
Sweden’s latest promised military aid package comes as Ukraine fiercely holds on to territory in the country’s east against renewed Russian assaults. Ukraine is counting on continued Western military aid to repel the Russian advance and launch its own offensives.
The Truck-Mounted Archer is a so-called “shoot and burn” weapon, capable of rapidly firing a succession of three shots and being on the move again before the first bullet hits its target.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said this week that Ukraine’s Western suppliers are “in a scramble for logistics” to prevent Russia from seizing the battlefield initiative.
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The Archer guns will join other Western-supplied equipment that has helped tilt the artillery engagements in Ukraine’s favor, along with French-made Caesar howitzers, US-supplied HIMARS and other precision strike systems .
Kristersson, speaking at a news conference in Kiev with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, would not say exactly when his country’s Archer guns would arrive, citing security needs and “practical reasons too, in terms of training and stuff.” type”.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, right, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy talk during a meeting in Kiev, Ukraine February 15, 2023. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)
But he said training will begin “very soon” and promised Archer deliveries “as soon as possible.”
Zelenskyy described the Archer as “one of the best pieces of artillery” and predicted it would impact Russian invasion forces on the battlefield.
“The stronger Ukraine is now, the sooner Russian aggression ends,” he said.
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Kristersson was less emphatic about another weapon system on Kiev’s wish list: fighter jets.
He did not rule out such support. But he suggested that Sweden would not want to go it alone as a potential supplier and that other nations should join the idea of aircraft deliveries, as they eventually did by sending standard NATO tanks to Ukraine.
“We’re not ruling anything out right now, this is not the time to rule anything out,” the Swedish prime minister said. “But at the same time we also recognize the fact that we need an international coalition to take further steps. This is quite obvious.”
Kristersson said Sweden’s drive to join NATO – along with candidate nation Finland – will also play into his thinking about military supplies to Ukraine.
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Being a candidate for NATO membership “puts us in a very special situation right now. We have very obvious reasons to be very careful with our defense at the moment”. he said.
“We will do everything we can to support Ukraine and we will do it in a way that does not undermine or undermine Sweden’s ability to defend itself, because this is a fundamental competence for a NATO candidate country to defend,” the prime minister said. . the minister said.
