German Chancellor Olaf Scholz responded to statements about an alleged reduction in aid to Ukraine.
According to him, Germany was and remains the strongest fan of Ukraine in Europe.
We continue our support, providing a 50 billion euro loan with the G7, which will allow Ukraine to buy weapons on a large scale. It can build on this, he wrote in X.
On Saturday, German media wrote about the limitation of military aid from Germany to Ukraine in the near future. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry called the statement manipulative.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes that Germany is stopping the allocation of new funds for aid to Ukraine. That is, the amount of aid will not exceed the 8 billion euros allocated for this year and the 4 billion euros allocated for the next.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhyi explained that a budget process is currently underway in Germany. According to him, the budget should be approved in November, and only then will the level of support for Ukraine for 2025 be known. He also recalled that Germany initially allocated only 4 billion for Ukraine for this year, and later the amount doubled.
A dispute within the German government over further aid to Ukraine led to a significant fall in the share prices of German arms makers earlier this week.
The fall comes amid debate in Germany’s defense industry that the German government may not yet allocate additional funds for military support for Ukraine.
History of the issue
In early August, the Prime Minister of the German state of Saxony and representative of the CDU, Michael Kretschmer, called for a reduction in military aid to Ukraine, which drew harsh criticism, in particular from fellow party members.
Deputy leader of the CDU parliamentary group Johann Wadephul said that Germany has an obligation to support “the country it itself invaded during the Second World War.”
The head of the Bundestag’s defence committee, Markus Faber, said he was “disgusted that the prime minister is using the Ukrainians’ struggle for survival for his regional election campaign.”
Ukrainians are fighting not because they want war, but because they do not want to live in one big Bucha, in which the Russian army indiscriminately kills, tortures and rapes, Faber emphasized.
Kretschmer believes that disputes over Germany’s federal budget can be resolved by cutting aid to Ukraine. Elections will be held in the state of Saxony, which the politician leads, on September 1.
East German-born Kretschmer advocates renewed cooperation with Russia, in particular repairs to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
Local elections will also be held in Thuringia and Brandenburg in the autumn.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.