German government cuts military support to Ukraine despite promises to do opposite - Die Welt
The German government, despite promises, has not increased military support for Ukraine; the opposition considers this behavior shameful.
This is reported by Censor.NЕТ with reference to European truth.
On Monday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, "We will support Ukraine - as much as it needs this support: economically, humanely, financially and through the supply of weapons. However, as the German newspaper Die Welt notes, the government's actions do not match his statements.
As the newspaper notes, the reduction in supplies stems from the list of weapons supplied to Kyiv, which was published by the Federal Government on June 21.
Since then, it has been updated three times and supplemented with new goods. 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 harshly criticized the lack of further deliveries. "Public words and actions in the federal government are sharply different. It is a disgrace," said Thorsten Frei, parliamentary secretary of the CDU faction in the Bundestag. "The Federal Government's demonstrative unwillingness to supply arms is damaging to Germany's reputation. The coalition is turning a blind eye to the fact that democracy and freedom are now being protected precisely in eastern and southern Ukraine," he said.
However, Scholz is criticized not only in the opposition, but also in the coalition, particularly in the Free Democratic Party. "Although Germany's economic, humanitarian and financial support is exemplary, the chancellor cannot convincingly justify her reluctance to supply heavy weapons," said Alexander Müller, the UDP's defense policy speaker.
The last time Germany made a substantial arms shipment 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 list, they were delivered on June 28, along with new ammunition, another 5,000 helmets, anti-drone equipment, and vehicle spare parts.
Prior to that, the Federal Government had already kept its military support to a minimum. As can be seen from the inventory lists available to the world, only small devices arrived in Ukraine between March 30 and mid-June. These are radios, hand grenades, machine gun parts, detonation cords, and incendiaries.
