Warnings of a significant reduction in German support for supplying weapons to Ukraine

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned of a significant reduction in German financial support allocated to supplying weapons to Ukraine.
On the sidelines of a conference on Syria in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, Baerbock said on Sunday that the German government last year allocated about seven billion euros for this purpose.

Providing significant support to Ukraine

She explained that if only half of this amount, or a little more, was allocated now, it would mean that “Ukraine’s ability to defend itself would decline,” stressing the need to continue providing significant support to Ukraine.
The German magazine “Der Spiegel” reported that there was a dispute within the German government regarding the supply of more weapons to Ukraine.
Baerbock, who belongs to the Green Party, and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who belongs to Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party, are seeking to provide an additional budget of about three billion euros before the parliamentary elections scheduled for next February 23, to cover Ukraine’s urgent need for additional weapons.

Obstructing military aid plans

The magazine added that Schulz’s Chancellery is obstructing plans for additional military aid, justifying this by not wanting to put the next government in front of a fait accompli.
In a program on German TV Channel 1, Schulz referred to the collapse of the coalition government (known as the traffic light government) and the upcoming parliamentary elections.
A government spokeswoman said the day before Friday that military aid to Ukraine is a permanent topic in government discussions, and that the matter is currently subject to internal coordination.

Expansion within Ukraine

Birbock said that Russian President Vladimir Putin not only aims to expand within Ukraine, which leads to the destruction of infrastructure and loss of life, but he is also directing his attacks towards Europe.
She pointed out that it is not possible for the series of malfunctions that struck submarine cables in the Baltic Sea in recent months to be a mere coincidence.
It should be noted that after the end of the coalition government, there is still no federal budget for 2025, and work is being done with a temporary budget based on the coalition government’s draft.

Support Ukraine

This draft includes allocating four billion euros to support Ukraine, and Schulz explained that the coalition government’s draft budget has a deficit of 12.5 billion euros.
He added: “If we wanted to spend an additional three billion, which is what I proposed, the deficit would rise to 15.5 billion euros unfunded, unless a decision is taken to increase additional borrowing.”
Schulz was seeking to suspend the debt reduction mechanism to cover this deficit, which was rejected by the Free Democratic Party (the party of dismissed Finance Minister Christian Lindner).