SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
Dutch to send sniper rifles, helmets to Ukraine
The Hague, Feb 18 (AFP) Feb 18, 2022
The Netherlands will send Ukraine military equipment including sniper rifles and helmets to defend itself against a possible Russian attack, the foreign minister said Friday.

The move by the NATO member comes despite neighbouring Germany being mocked by the mayor of Kyiv for sending helmets to Ukraine in the face of any Russian invasion.

"Ukraine must be able to defend itself against a possible Russian armed attack on its own territory," foreign minister Wopke Hoekstra said in a statement.

"That is why the cabinet has decided to supply these military goods to Ukraine."

The only lethal weaponry the Dutch government will send Ukraine consists of 100 sniper rifles with 30,000 rounds of ammunition, the foreign ministry said.

It will also supply 3,000 combat helmets and 2,000 armour plated vests "for personal protection of vital body parts", it said.

The Netherlands will further supply 30 metal detectors, two robots for detecting naval mines, two battlefield surveillance radars and five weapon location radars that help troops tell where incoming fire has come from, it said.

Germany in January said it would not provide weapons to Ukraine but offered to send 5,000 helmets instead, a move slammed as an "absolute joke" by Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko.

The Netherlands has built close ties to Ukraine in the wake of the MH17 disaster in 2014, when a Malaysia Airlines flight flying from Amsterdam was shot down over eastern Ukraine in 2014 with the loss of all 298 people on board, 196 of them Dutch.

However The Hague has been cooler on military support.

In 2016 Dutch voters soundly rejected a key EU-Ukraine treaty, forcing Prime Minister Mark Rutte to work out a compromise deal that limited the EU's defence commitments to Ukraine and any guarantee of full EU membership for Kyiv.

dk/pvh

Malaysia Airlines


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
Bearings Used in Space Technologies: Engineering for the Final Frontier
China prepares for Mars sample return with HKU astrobiologist on mission team
Robots could one day crawl across the moon

24/7 Energy News Coverage
Ultrasound triggers nuclear decay anomaly hinting at flexible space-time
AI system accelerates aircraft concept design using language models
Autonomous sub explores unexplored trench depths to reveal critical mineral clues

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
PLD Space selected as leading contender for ESA sovereign launch initiative
UK opens competitive bid for GBP 75 million orbital cleanup mission
Boeing wins major contract to deliver new generation strategic comms satellites

24/7 News Coverage
Glacier retreat could drive a surge in volcanic eruptions worldwide
UK thermal satellite firm wins ESA contract to deliver real time climate and security insights
Beyond male dominance in primates new study redefines gender power roles



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.