Despite promises, German government reduces military support for Ukraine
Despite its promises, the German government has not increased military support for Ukraine. The government opposition calls such behavior shameful, reported Die Welt.
On Monday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said: "We will support Ukraine – as long as it needs this support: economically, humanitarianly, financially and through the supply of weapons."
However, as noted, the actions of the government do not correspond to its statements.
As the newspaper notes, the list of weapons supplied to Ukraine, which was published by the German government on June 21, shows that the shipments have been reduced.
According to Welt, since then, the list has been updated three times and supplemented with new products. Over the past three weeks, Ukraine has received two deliveries. In the first week of July, Kyiv received 42,000 dry rations from Germany. The second delivery included 102 unarmored vehicles.
The opposition sharply criticized the lack of further supplies. “Public statements and actions of the federal government are dramatically different. It's a disgrace," said the parliamentary secretary of the CDU faction in the Bundestag, Thorsten Frei.
"The demonstrative reluctance of the federal government to supply weapons is damaging Germany's reputation. The coalition turns a blind eye to the fact that democracy and freedom are now protected in the east and south of Ukraine," Frei said.
When asked whether the "weapons" have been supplied to Ukraine in the past three weeks, the foreign policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group, Nils Schmid, said “yes”.
According to him, "it is necessary to consider the support of the Western community, including the EU package of 500 million euros, adopted on Monday as a joint package."
However, Scholz is criticized not only by the opposition, but also by the coalition members, in particular, in the Free Democratic Party. "While Germany's economic, humanitarian and financial support is exemplary, the chancellor cannot convincingly justify his reluctance to supply heavy weapons," said Alexander Müller, the FDP's spokesman for defence policy.
The last time Germany made significant arms shipments to Ukraine was four weeks ago. On June 21, seven self-propelled howitzers promised to Kyiv in early May arrived in Ukraine. According to the federal government's list, they were delivered on June 28 along with new ammunition, another 5,000 helmets, anti-drone equipment and spare parts for vehicles.
Before that, the German federal government had already reduced its military support to Ukraine to a minimum. As the shipments list shows, from March 30 to mid-June, only small devices and parts were shipped to Ukraine, such as radio stations, hand grenades, machine gun parts, detonation cords and fuses.