The German Ministry of Defense refused to increase the supply of weapons to Ukraine

The German Ministry of Defense rejected the proposal of the Bundestag deputies from the ruling coalition to supply Ukraine with more weapons and, if necessary, to agree to the weakening of its own armed forces.

This is reported by Deutsche Welle.

"Indeed, we must be prepared for Putin to take advantage of any weakness and even a temporary breach in NATOʼs defense readiness," the ministryʼs spokesman said.

He reminded that Germany should provide its alliance partners with "support within the framework of obligations", as stipulated in the fifth article of the NATO Treaty. "During the Cold War, we probably wouldnʼt have understood if our allies reduced collective defense due to the situation in various theaters of war — and there were such in the world," added the representative of the military department.

According to DW, in a joint article for Der Spiegel published on Sunday, August 21, the MPs who specialize in the field of defense — Social Democrat Christian Klink, Union 90/Greens Zara Nanni and Free Democrat Alexander Müller — criticized Berlinʼs current position that supporting the capacity of the Bundeswehr to protect Germany and NATO takes priority over aid to Ukraine.

The authors of the article indicated that until now the government explained the relatively small amount of military aid to Ukraine by the shortage of military equipment in the German army. "This is nothing more than a contrived conflict of goals, since the security and stability of Europe is currently protected in Ukraine," they noted.

• In July, it was reported that Germany had cut military aid to Ukraine to a minimum, despite Chancellor Olaf Scholzʼs statement about supplying the necessary weapons.
• At the beginning of August, Germany handed Ukraine four anti-aircraft self-propelled Gepard installations. The first six arrived at the end of July. The Germans also gave 13 armored vehicles — three evacuation vehicles and 10 HMMWVs.
• According to media reports, the German government has given permission to sell 100 Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled artillery units to Ukraine.