Dusseldorf The federal government wants to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia with further arms deliveries. According to information from the German Press Agency, the Federal Ministry of Defense applied to the Federal Security Council on Wednesday for the delivery of 2,000 more rocket-propelled grenades. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz assured Ukraine of full solidarity on the 28th day of the Russian war of aggression. “President (Volodimir) Zelensky: Ukraine can rely on our help,” said the SPD politician in the Bundestag.
According to Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens), Germany is also sending further Strela-type air defense systems to Ukraine. The Ukrainian armed forces have already received 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 “Stinger” surface-to-air missiles from Bundeswehr stocks, as well as 500 of around 2,700 Strela missiles from old stocks. Until then, Germany had almost always refused to supply arms to conflict zones.
The US government has officially accused Russian troops in Ukraine of war crimes. There have been numerous credible reports of targeted attacks on civilians and other atrocities, the State Department said in a statement.
The western states meanwhile want to discuss further action against Russia on Thursday. NATO, G7 and EU summits are being held in Brussels.
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As NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced in advance, the defense alliance is strengthening its eastern flank with four additional battlegroups in Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia.
EU releases another 500 million euros for arms deliveries to Ukraine
On Wednesday evening, the EU states officially approved the increase in funds for arms deliveries to Ukraine. As reported by the representation of the 27 member countries, a further 500 million euros are available to support the Ukrainian armed forces. The money is intended to finance military equipment, but also goods such as fuel and first-aid kits. A first package of 500 million euros was approved at the end of February. The second was announced on March 11th.
Germany wants to take over a quarter of the 500 million euros with which the EU is supplying new weapons to Ukraine.
(Photo: IMAGO/Christian Spicker)
According to Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht, Germany will fund more than a quarter of EU support for Ukraine’s armed forces. Germany is taking part “in the order of 26 percent,” said the SPD politician on Monday on the sidelines of an EU meeting in Brussels.
Technically, the money for military aid comes from the so-called European Peace Facility. It is a new EU financing instrument that can also be used to strengthen the capabilities of armed forces in partner countries. For the period from 2021 to 2027, the peace facility is endowed with around five billion euros, which will be paid in by the member states. For the Ukraine alone, one billion euros have now been released within a very short time.
Scholz: “With the war, Putin is also destroying Russia’s future”
Scholz demanded in the Bundestag: “The guns must be silent – immediately.” Russia’s President Vladimir Putin must hear the truth about this war. “And that truth is: War is destroying Ukraine. But with the war, Putin is also destroying Russia’s future.”
Scholz, on the other hand, once again rejected calls for Germany to stop energy supplies from Russia immediately in order to put pressure on Moscow. Germany’s dependence on Russian energy imports cannot be reduced overnight, he told the weekly newspaper Die Zeit.
Four weeks of war – Russian troops hardly make any progress
Fierce fighting continued in Ukraine on Wednesday, with Russian troops making little progress, according to Western estimates, due to exhaustion and supply problems. On February 24, Russian troops attacked Ukraine on Putin’s orders.
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The “special military operation”, as Moscow calls the war, is going according to plan, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told US broadcaster CNN. But Putin has “not yet” achieved his goals. These included the decimation of the Ukrainian military and a pledge by Kiev that the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, belonged to Russia. In addition, Ukraine must recognize that the separatist regions in the east are now “independent states”.
Ukraine on the offensive – Zelensky sees progress in negotiations
Talks between Ukraine and Russia about an end to hostilities are complicated, according to both sides. Ukraine is demanding an end to the fighting and a withdrawal of Russian troops.
Russia and a possible use of nuclear weapons
Peskov repeatedly evaded the question of whether Putin ruled out the use of nuclear weapons in the conflict. He referred to the Russian security doctrine, according to which nuclear weapons would be used if there was an “existential threat” to Russia. The US Department of Defense called the statements dangerous. Before leaving for Europe, Biden said he viewed the use of chemical weapons as a “real threat.” According to Scholz, he personally warned Putin against using chemical or biological weapons.
In the conflict with Ukraine, Russia repeatedly threatens to use its nuclear arsenal.
(Photo: dpa)
Stoltenberg expressed the expectation that the NATO special summit would agree on additional support for Ukraine, including equipment to protect against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats, as well as help with cybersecurity.
Summit diplomacy on Thursday
Selenskyj is to be connected to the NATO summit via video. His advisor Mykhailo Podoliak called for modern anti-aircraft weapons if NATO did not want to block the skies over Ukraine for Russian planes. The strengthening of NATO’s eastern flank announced by Stoltenberg is already a clear sign of Russia’s deterrence. So far, NATO has permanently stationed multinational units in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as well as in Poland. The expansion of the presence means that in the future NATO troops will be present from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea.
Poland has declared 45 Russian diplomats undesirable. With one exception, the Russian diplomats now have to leave the country within five days. Poland accuses them of espionage. It is expected that Russia will now also expel several dozen Polish diplomats.
Debate on the distribution of refugees
The federal government is finding it difficult to estimate the extent of the flight movement from Ukraine to Germany. “It is still completely unclear how many women, men and children from Ukraine will seek refuge with us,” said Scholz. It is also still not known how many war refugees are already in Germany. The Federal Police registered the arrival of 238,932 war refugees. However, the actual number is likely to be significantly higher – Ukrainians are allowed to enter the country without a visa, and there are no regular border controls at the EU’s internal borders.
Thousands of refugees from Ukraine have been waiting for their onward journey at the main station in Warsaw every day for weeks.
(Photo: IMAGO/Reichwein)
It is also unclear how the refugees will be distributed within the EU. The EU Commission rejected calls for mandatory quotas. Germany is one of the countries that are pushing for distribution throughout the EU.
Russian gas deliveries only have to be paid in rubles
President Vladimir Putin announced at a televised cabinet meeting on Wednesday that he intends to change the payment method for deliveries to “unfriendly countries”. Of course, Russia will meet its contractual obligations in terms of quantity and prices. The changes only affect the currency. The government and central bank in Moscow would clarify the exact details of the implementation within a week. The energy company Gazprom was urged to change the contracts accordingly.
The federal government was concerned: “The announcement to pay in rubles is first of all a breach of the contracts,” said Economics Minister Robert Habeck. The gas association “Zukunft Gas” spoke of a great irritation.
Because of the Russian attack on Ukraine, numerous Western countries have imposed extensive sanctions on Russia. Among other things, Russian assets were frozen abroad. Above all, the EU is heavily dependent on Russian oil and gas supplies and is therefore hesitant about an energy boycott. The German government has repeatedly stated that it does not want to take this step.
With agency material.
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