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Germany scaling back military aid to Ukraine: report

30.05.2022 23:30
Germany has scaled back its military support for Ukraine, failing to provide any heavy weapons to Ukrainian forces in recent weeks, a Polish website reported on Monday, citing German media outlets.
Olaf Scholz.
Olaf Scholz.PAP/EPA/FOCKE STRANGMANN

Since late March, German arms supplies to Ukraine have dropped to almost zero, the tvp.info website reported, citing Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

Documents obtained by Welt am Sonntag indicate that between March 30 and May 26, only two arms shipments from the German government reached Ukraine, according to tvp.info. 

These packages contained only light equipment, tvp.info said.

Two arms shipments from Germany in two months

In mid-April, Germany sent spare parts for machine guns as well as hand grenades, explosives and mines, tvp.info reported.  

In mid-May, Ukraine received 3,000 anti-tank mines and 1,600 specialist anti-tank mines, according to tvp.info.

Ukraine says the last shipment of anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons from Germany arrived on March 25, tvp.info reported.  

Chancellor in hot seat over Ukraine aid 

Meanwhile, the Berliner Zeitung newspaper has claimed that lawmakers from Germany’s governing parties “react with irritation, exasperation and sometimes sheer helplessness” when asked about Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Ukraine policy, according to tvp.info.

MPs from the social democratic SPD, the liberal FDP and the Greens argue that heavy weapons are not being delivered to Ukraine despite the go-ahead in late April from the Bundestag lower house of parliament, tvp.info reported.  

Scholz’s 'indecision is a tactic'

Scholz, meanwhile, “hasn’t made any concrete announcements, but keeps making the same speech about Ukraine, most recently at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland,” tvp.info said, citing the Berliner Zeitung.  

His address there “didn’t contain a single sentence about weapons supplies to Ukraine,” the Polish website said, claiming that Scholz's “indecision is a tactic, of course."

Monday was day 96 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

(pm/gs)

Source: tvp.info, forsal.plwelt.de