Melynk criticizes Scholz: “Great disappointment and bitterness”

Chancellor Scholz wants to continue to support Ukraine financially and militarily. The weapons should not come directly from Germany. Criticism comes from within the country and from the Ukrainian ambassador Melnyk.

Ukrainian Ambassador Andriy Melnyk has criticized Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s announcement of further arms deliveries as insufficient. The statements made by the SPD politician were received “with great disappointment and bitterness” in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, said Melnyk. Germany’s willingness to provide additional funds for armaments is welcomed. However, there are still many more open questions than answers.

“The thesis that the Bundeswehr is no longer able to deliver anything to Ukraine is incomprehensible,” said Melnyk. The force has more than 400 Marder armored personnel carriers, around 100 of which are used for education and training and can therefore be immediately handed over to Ukraine. According to his findings, the Bundeswehr also has around 800 Fuchs armored transport vehicles, most of which are not in use and could therefore be sent to Ukraine. “The delivery of Panzerhaubitzen 2000 would also be very important.” There are about 120 of these long-range artillery pieces in the Bundeswehr, Melnyk said.

Ukraine should order directly from industry

Last night, Scholz made it clear that arms deliveries to Ukraine from Bundeswehr stocks were hardly possible. “Here we have to recognize that the possibilities we have are reaching their limits,” he said. According to Scholz, one’s own ability to defend Germany against a Russian attack must be guaranteed.

Instead, he announced that he would finance direct arms deliveries from German industry to Ukraine. Ukraine has selected armaments from a list of offers, “and we are providing them with the money necessary for the purchase,” said Scholz. As before, these include anti-tank weapons, anti-aircraft equipment, ammunition “and also anything that can be used in an artillery battle”. In addition, NATO partners who deliver weapons of Soviet design to Ukraine could receive replacements from Germany.

“The weapons we need are not on this list”

Melnyk complained that there was a lack of coordination regarding the purchase of weapons from the German armaments industry. Ukraine’s priorities had been given too little attention. “We call on the federal government to play openly on this crucial issue and not to beat around the bush,” said Melnyk. “Any further unnecessary delay costs more lives.”

In the ZDF “heute journal” he had also complained that there were no heavy weapons on the list of possible arms deliveries that Ukraine had received from Germany a few weeks ago. “The weapons we need are not on this list.”

Hofreiter: “Should do a lot more”

The Green politician Anton Hofreiter also criticized Scholz’s announcement as insufficient. The announced support for partner countries in arms deliveries to Ukraine is “another step in the right direction, but it’s not enough,” Hofreiter told the t-online portal. He explained to the editorial network Germany that it was really crucial that Ukraine now quickly got heavier weapons. “The (Russian) offensive in eastern Ukraine has already begun. And one shouldn’t forget: Germany is the economically strongest country in the European Union, and that’s why we should do a lot more.”

The FDP defense politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann also criticized the chancellor again. “But you have to fight for freedom and human rights, you don’t get them for free. There wasn’t enough concrete information for that today,” she explained via Twitter. Compared to other countries, Germany is still lagging behind.

Criticism came again from the Union. “Too little – too late”, that remains the bitter balance after Scholz’s press conference, wrote the deputy Union faction leader Johann Wadephul (CDU) on Twitter. “Germany is still not supplying heavy weapons, ie it is abandoning Ukraine.”

SPD leader Klingbeil for Ukraine’s EU accession

The SPD chairwoman Saskia Esken wants to meet with Melnyk today. The Ukrainian ambassador made it clear that he was hoping for the go-ahead for the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine. He also expects a supply stop for Russian gas and oil. The entire federal government made up of SPD, Greens and FDP has rejected a general energy embargo.

In the past few weeks, Melnyk had repeatedly condemned the SPD’s earlier Russia course and called for more German arms deliveries to Ukraine.

Before Esken’s meeting with Melnyk, SPD leader Lars Klingbeil spoke out in favor of clear EU accession prospects for Ukraine. “The people of Ukraine are Europeans. They fight for our European values ​​and with great determination against Putin’s brutal troops,” he said. Ukraine applied for EU membership shortly after Russia’s war of aggression began and is pushing for an accelerated process.