Status: 04/09/2022 09:07 a.m
Defense Minister Lambrecht has once again declared that the Bundeswehr’s options for supplying weapons have been exhausted. Replenishment must come from industry. She defended the secrecy of deliveries.
According to Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht, there is hardly any possibility of supplying the Ukraine directly with weapons and material from Bundeswehr stocks. In order to maintain the Bundeswehr’s ability to defend itself, future deliveries would increasingly have to be made directly by the armaments industry, the SPD politician told the “Augsburger Allgemeine”: “We are constantly coordinating this with Ukraine.”
“In terms of deliveries from Bundeswehr stocks, I must honestly say that we have now reached a limit.” The Bundeswehr must continue to be able to “guarantee national and alliance defense,” said Lambrecht. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t do more for Ukraine.” That’s why it was clarified, for example, “what the industry can deliver directly”.
Lambrecht made a similar statement three weeks ago. At the time, she explained that arms deliveries to Ukraine increasingly had to be handled through industry. This is then no longer a matter for the Ministry of Defence, but for the Ministry of Economics, since it is then a question of arms exports.
Delivery details should remain secret
Lambrecht confirmed in the “Augsburger Allgemeine” that he still did not want to give any details about arms deliveries. “There are good reasons that we have classified exactly this information as secret,” she emphasized. “Contrary to other accounts, we did this at the express request of Ukraine,” said Lambrecht, again rejecting statements by the Ukrainian Ambassador Andriy Melnyk without naming him.
“There are clear statements from my Ukrainian counterpart, his deputy and the military attaché,” stressed Lambrecht. Of course you stick to these guidelines. “You always have to remember that the moment the deliveries were published in detail, Russia would also have this information. And that alone would have military-strategic implications.”