The 5,000 helmets Germany offered Ukraine are finally on their way as it faces a Russian onslaught from 3 sides

• A shipment of 5,000 helmets Ger may promised to Ukraine is finally on its way, more than two days after Russia invaded.  
• Ukrainian leaders criticized the offer calling it a “purely symbolic gesture” and “just a drop in the bucket.” 
• The helmets were promised to Ukraine more than a month ago by Germany’s secretary of defense. 

The 5,000 helmets Germany offered to Ukraine are finally on their way as the country faces Russian attacks from 3 sides. 

Over a month after Germany’s secretary of defense promised the equipment, two trucks are bound for a handoff just outside Ukraine, according to German media company Der Spiegel.  

German officials had previously refused to send weapons or “lethal aid” to Ukraine, despite the build-up of Russian forces, and only offered the helmets after being criticized by Ukrainian leaders who said the move was a “betrayal of friends.”

Kyiv’s mayor later called the helmet offer a “joke” and asked if Germany would send “pillows” next. 

The offer of helmets was paltry compared to arms shipments by the US and NATO allies, who have been sending lethal aid like anti-tank missiles, especially considering Ukraine’s request to Germany was for 100,000 helmets as well as protective vests. 

Germany is the world’s fourth largest weapons exporter. 

Critics accused Germany of prioritizing Nord Stream 2 — an undersea Russia-to-Germany gas pipeline — over helping Ukraine. Germany eventually put the pipeline on hold after Russian troops were sent into the Donbass region of Ukraine. 

Russian forces are invading Ukraine from Belarus to its north, its long Russian border and from Crimea to its south, with US officials estimating less than half of Russia’s full combat force has been employed.