“The publication Spiegel, citing its sources, reported that German Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz does not agree to a new large package of military aid to Ukraine offered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense. Source: “European Truth” with reference to Spiegel Details: According to the publication, the German government – where early elections will soon be held – has been arguing for weeks about additional military aid to Ukraine.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
The publication Spiegel, citing its sources, reported that German Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz does not agree to a new large package of military aid to Ukraine offered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense.
Source: “European truth” with reference to Spiegel
Details: According to the publication, the German government – where early elections will soon be held – has been arguing for weeks about additional military aid to Ukraine.
Foreign Minister Annalena Burbok of the Greens and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who is Scholz’s SPD ally, have reportedly offered to allocate an additional 3 billion euros to agree to provide Ukraine with much-needed weapons before early elections on February 23.
The contents of the package were compiled in accordance with the request of the Ukrainian side. It called for (but it is not known whether the German side was prepared to provide all of this) three more IRIS-T batteries and interceptor missiles to operate them, additional interceptors for the Patriot, ten self-propelled howitzers and artillery ammunition.
According to Pistorius and Burbok, this would be an important signal for Ukraine that German aid will not decrease.
The idea of the ministers was that the government would turn to the budget committee of the Bundestag regarding the approval of unplanned spending (this mechanism has already been used in the past), with the argument that all urgent needs of Ukraine could not be foreseen at the earlier stages of planning. Among other things, they point to the dire situation on the eastern front, where the Russians are making advances, and the uncertainty over further American aid due to Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
However, since January, work on the preparation of the package has stalled, as signals have come from Scholz’s office that he is against such additional spending.
According to Spiegel, Scholz’s disagreement is explained by the fact that they do not see a critical need for this package and believe that the already provided assistance will be enough for the near future, and also do not want to “face the facts” with the new government of the country, which will be formed in the spring.
The preliminary budget for 2025 provides 4 billion euros for military aid, and it is also expected that Ukraine will be able to use a loan of 50 billion dollars from the G7, which is financed with the use of revenues from frozen Russian assets.
Without Scholz’s consent, it is impossible to approve a new aid package. The SPD privately says that the chancellor’s real motives are related to the elections – Scholz is afraid that this move will not please the part of the voters who are still hesitating to vote for the SPD. At the same time, the “Greens”, on the contrary, expect to get political points by advocating for an increase in defense spending and active support for Ukraine.
Both ministries did not want to officially comment on this information.
What happened before: At the end of December 2024, Germany handed Ukraine a large aid package with IRIS-T and Patriot