Politico: German chancellor to pressure EU leaders to supply Ukraine with more weapons

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz plans to pressure European leaders to supply Ukraine with more weapons. He wants to do this at the summit of EU leaders on February 1 in Brussels.

Politico writes about this with reference to sources.

At the summit in Brussels, the leaders plan to approve a €50 billion financial aid package for Kyiv, and Olaf Scholz wants to use this opportunity for additional negotiations on military support for Ukraine for 2024.

The other day, the German chancellor noted that the currently planned arms deliveries to Ukraine by most of the EU member states "are certainly too small." He called on allies to step up support.

Olaf Scholz added that he asked the EU to compile a list of all military aid that member states plan to provide to Ukraine this year "no later than" before the February 1 summit.

The chancellorʼs plan to discuss the list with EU leaders is likely to increase pressure on France, Italy and Spain, which have so far provided relatively little military aid to Kyiv, according to public sources.

• On January 4, Berlin announced a new aid package for Ukraine. It has a Skynex anti-aircraft artillery complex, Marder BMP, TRML-4D radar stations, and more. Germany has already provided Ukraine with several types of artillery, Leopard tanks of older and new modifications, IRIS-T and Patriot air defense systems, ammunition, cars, drones and other types of weapons. The Federal Republic of Germany also allocates money for Ukrenergo, transfers humanitarian aid and has pledged to double its aid to Ukraine next year to €8 billion.