Germany blocks delivery of anti-drone jamming guns to Ukraine
The German representative on the supervisory board of the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) blocked the delivery of anti-drone jamming guns to Ukraine, reports the Ukrainian newspaper Dzerkalo Tyzhnia (the Mirror Weekly), citing its sources.
According to the newspaper, Kyiv has already paid for the shipment of these anti-drone mitigation systems from Lithuania.
The previous German government refused on principle to sell weapons, even defense weapons. According to the newspaper’s sources, the Ukrainian side raised this issue of blocking the purchased weapons even during the last visit of ex-German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Kyiv, but the problem was not solved.
"The story is very revealing and demonstrates the general attitude and approaches of the previous German leadership and, I am afraid, also of the new government with regard to the provision, or rather, non-provision of defense weapons to Ukraine. It's a pity, but as far as I know, official explanations were not provided about the case that you mentioned," said Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk.
According to him, German officials gave informal explanations that "such weapons could potentially provoke further military escalation on the demarcation line and lead to larger clashes." He noted that these are the main arguments that have been used in recent years to justify Berlin's refusal to provide Ukraine with weapons in order to strengthen its defense capability.
Melnyk believes that under the new Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Germany is unlikely to take a different course. He also stressed that such a position is strange, "when they say, this can be used by the Russians to question Berlin‘s mediation mission within the Normandy four framework."
The ambassador noted that such illogical arguments are very disappointing, since right now Ukraine is at the point when "we need to understand who is a real friend, not only in words, but also in deeds."
"And in the future, we will convince our German partners that additional means of electronic warfare or any other types of defense weapons that save the lives of Ukrainians every day are not for provocations, but for deterring new aggression and for a quick end to this bloody war. By the way, providing Kyiv with weapons for self-defence would strengthen the position of official Berlin and to promote the mediation mission, which now, unfortunately, is at an impasse," Melnyk emphasized.
He added that it is unlikely that Germany's position can be easily changed, but believes that "there are some chances", especially thanks to the visit to Ukraine of the co-chairman of the Green Party Robert Habeck, who has now taken the post of Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and Vice-Chancellor.