Germany denies delays in arms supplies to Ukraine
In Berlin, they claim that they supply Ukraine with a lot of weapons and deny that they are delaying the process.
As Censor.NET reports with reference to Ukrinform, this was stated by the representative of the federal government Christiana Hoffmann at a briefing on Monday.
She rejected allegations that the German authorities were deliberately delaying the supply of heavy weapons to Ukraine.
"There are no factual grounds for such statements. The federal government supplies Ukraine with large quantities of weapons according to certain criteria so that the state can defend itself against Russian aggression," Hoffman said.
She refused to go into specific details, noting that no one would publish the list of weapons supplied to Ukraine.
German Defense Ministry spokesman Christian Tils, meanwhile, confirmed that a meeting would be held on Monday afternoon, May 23, to continue talks between the 40 countries in Ramstein (April 26).
"The topic is clear: how can we continue to meaningfully support Ukraine," Tils said.
He confirmed that the German side of the Gepard howitzers will be delivered to Ukraine when they are brought into condition and enough charges are prepared (which are collected from various sources, as they are not currently produced).
"Currently, the deadline is that the first 15 units will be delivered by mid-July, the next 15 - by the end of August," Tils said, adding that by the same time the Ukrainian military will be prepared.
The terms of the operation were discussed last Friday during telephone talks between the defense ministers of Germany and Ukraine. Gepard, advertised the Tils howitzers, is a particularly strong air defense system, in particular to protect critical infrastructure, but also to deter.
The MoD spokesman also briefed on the details of the "arms exchange" with other NATO countries that supply arms directly to Kyiv.
For example, Germany has already handed over 15 Leopard 2 A4 tanks to the Czech Republic instead of the Soviet-style tanks previously handed over to Ukraine by the Czech Republic, and will teach Czech soldiers to operate these systems. Negotiations with Poland are underway.
German politicians and society have reportedly voiced critical criticism of the chancellor and his government in delaying the process of providing Ukraine with heavy weapons.
