In the years to come, Ukraine is expected to benefit massively from military aid from Germany. It’s about billions of euros.
The federal government is planning a massive expansion of military aid to Ukraine. This emerges from an internal report by the Ministry of Finance, which was first reported by the “Spiegel” on Monday.
In the current budget year, Berlin has earmarked 2.2 billion euros for “upgrading partner states in the areas of security, defense and stabilization”. The federal government is thus financing the delivery of weapons to Ukraine, but also the repeat orders of weapon systems to replace the weapons that have been handed over.
Military aid to Ukraine is set to double later this year
According to the report, this sum should more than double in 2023 and amount to more than 5.4 billion euros by the end of the year. In the coming years, another 8.8 billion euros are to be made available for so-called “commitment authorizations”. According to the “Spiegel” report, a billion had been planned for this purpose.
On Tuesday it is planned to inform the budget holders of the Bundestag about the purpose of the budget increases – in other words: what the additional money will be used for in Ukraine.
Ministry wants to purchase tracked vehicles and artillery
In the previously secret paper, the Ministry of Finance justifies the increased need for money: “Due to the high material losses of the Ukrainian armed forces, new supplies of material are necessary,” it says. “In order to ensure that the Ukrainian armed forces are equipped with sustainable equipment that meets their needs, numerous procurement contracts must be concluded immediately, which will also establish payment obligations for future financial years.”
Above all, the weapon systems to be purchased are in the areas of “air defence, armored tracked vehicles, ammunition supply for the weapon systems and artillery supplied by Germany”.
According to the document, the additional expenditure is “objectively unavoidable, since without continued support for Ukraine there is a serious risk that Ukraine will lose in its defensive struggle against the Russian aggressor, with unforeseeable consequences for the European peace order”.
