Berlin has approved a shipment of 2,700 Soviet-era, shoulder-fired Strela missiles to Ukraine, according to government sources cited by news agencies.

The weapons would come out of the depots once overseen by Soviet-controlled East Germany, which reunited with West Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Germany had refused to send weapons to Ukraine before the Russian government launched its offensive last Thursday. But the move marked “a historical shift,” according to the country’s leader.