Status: 03/22/2022 05:16 a.m
Compared to NATO partners such as the United States and Great Britain, Germany has so far delivered few weapons to Ukraine. That should change now. However, the federal government is keeping a low profile on the details.
In its rebellion against the Russian attack, Ukraine is not only defending itself, but also liberal democracy. In other words, she also fights for our worldview. Western politicians never tire of emphasizing this. The conclusion is that it is all the more important that Ukraine gets what it needs for defense. And these are – directly – weapons.
Nils Schmid, the foreign policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, believes that if Russian President Vladimir Putin is to be forced into serious negotiations, then the military balance must be shifted in favor of Ukraine. “The key is indeed the delivery of weapons, because that’s what makes the difference in the short term,” said Schmid ARD and ZDF.
Lambrecht: We can hardly deliver anything
The fact that Ukraine needs weapons is a realization that only seeped into the consciousness of the Federal Republic at a late stage: until the Russian invasion on February 24, the strict motto was: No weapons in conflict areas. Then Germany delivered 500 Stinger surface-to-air missiles and 1000 anti-tank weapons. That much is confirmed.
The German government is reluctant to comment on the fact that of the 2,700 Strela-type anti-aircraft missiles promised from the old GDR stocks, only about 500 were sent to Ukraine. But one thing is certain: “As Germany, we can hardly deliver anything from the Bundeswehr’s stocks. I would almost say we can’t deliver anything anymore,” Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht has said several times.
Strict secrecy on weapons
But in Berlin you can feel the pressure. Also the pressure to explain why the fourth largest arms exporter in the world – Germany – did not react faster. Now there has been a change of course: in future, new weapons for the Ukraine are to be ordered directly from German manufacturers to ensure that the country continues to be supplied, as Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also confirmed: “From the federal government, we will work under high pressure to ensure that that if you want to buy from German manufacturers, that can happen as quickly as possible.”
Otherwise, however, the federal government has now imposed strict secrecy on the issue of weapons to Ukraine. like that ARD Capital Studio was confirmed by security circles, the chancellery pushed for it. Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said it was about preventing Russia from spying on and attacking transport routes: “You are safe as long as we don’t talk about it publicly.”
Does the federal government need to do more?
While the federal government is now even silent about what it has already delivered, the USA is talking very openly about the type and number of its planned deliveries. A good quarter of the EU’s additional 500 million euro program for weapons and equipment for Ukraine will come from Germany, Lambrecht announced.
But that is unlikely to ease the pressure on the federal government to do more. Defense expert Gustav Gressel from the think tank European Council on Foreign Relations emphasized ARD and ZDFthat Ukraine needs supplies of weapons and ammunition from the West: “If they get that, they can hold out for a long time,” explained Gressel.
According to military experts, how successfully and how long Ukraine can defend itself – and thus also the strength of the law against the law of the strongest – also depends on the type and number of arms deliveries from the West.