Status: 07/27/2022 04:16 a.m
CDU leader Merz has accused Chancellor Scholz of deceiving military support for Ukraine. Kyiv will not be supplied with heavy weapons as decided. Merz attested to the chancellor’s “unwillingness to lead”.
Before his trip to Poland, CDU leader Friedrich Merz accused Chancellor Olaf Scholz of serious omissions in the delivery of weapons to Ukraine.
“His announcements about military support for Ukraine do not stand up to scrutiny,” Merz told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “The German public and parliament are being deceived. And the federal government is not doing what the Bundestag decided: namely to supply heavy weapons,” the CDU politician continued.
Poles dissatisfied with ring exchange
Merz, who is also the leader of the Union in the Bundestag, begins a two-day visit to the Polish capital of Warsaw today. From a Polish point of view, Berlin is too hesitant to supply arms to Ukraine, which is under Russian attack. Warsaw is also disappointed with a planned exchange of rings: it has surrendered more than 200 tanks to Ukraine, but is unhappy with the German offer of compensation.
The ring exchange had “become a dead end,” said Merz. He called for a public debate about “how trustworthy our government still is in our own country, but also and especially in Central and Eastern Europe.”
Merz: Traffic light coalition torn
Merz described the fact that the FDP and the Greens are now proposing to supply Ukraine directly with tanks as daily “proof of distrust in his own chancellor”. The debate within the coalition about the arms deliveries revealed the inner turmoil in the traffic light coalition and the chancellor’s “unwillingness to lead”.
It was announced on Tuesday that Ukraine had received additional heavy weapons from Germany for defense against the Russian war of aggression. “The promised Mars II multiple rocket launchers and another three self-propelled howitzers 2000 have been delivered. We keep our word,” said Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht.