Berlin On Tuesday evening, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) tried forward defense: Germany will continue to supply Ukraine with weapons – everything “that can be implemented and deployed quickly,” he said after a video conference with US President Joe Biden and the heads of state and government Heads of government of other EU and NATO allies.
He named anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons, ammunition or material used in artillery battles. But this requires close coordination with the allies: “German solo efforts would be wrong,” emphasized Scholz.
Before that, the head of government had been under increasing pressure to give up his hesitant stance on the delivery of heavy weapons – both from the opposition and from the ranks of the traffic light coalition. If Scholz does not move, then he must expect a corresponding application from the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag in the next week, tweeted Union parliamentary group leader Johann Wadephul (CDU).
It was announced over the weekend that Scholz wanted to release two billion euros in military aid, primarily to enable Ukraine to buy weapons. Because armaments exports of heavy weapons are handled restrictively at the same time, the liberal coalition partner sees a diversion above all: “The checkbook diplomacy in combination with export refusals seems to me like an attempt to no longer want to be the bogeyman internationally,” said the spokesman for defense technology and procurement the FDP parliamentary group, Alexander Müller, the Handelsblatt.
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In view of the major offensive launched by Russia in western Ukraine, the Ukrainians do not currently need helmets, night vision devices or money, emphasizes Müller. “But if the federal government would finally issue an export permit after seven weeks of application to release the used armored vehicles from Germany, then a lot would be achieved.”
Decommissioned tanks could be delivered to Ukraine
The armaments group Rheinmetall has offered to repair decommissioned Marder and Leopard 1 tanks and make them available to Ukraine. The Ukrainians have also knocked on the door of the Flensburger Fahrzeugbau Gesellschaft (FFG), which can offer used armored recovery vehicles, engineer vehicles, bridge-laying vehicles or armored personnel carriers. However, no decision has yet been made on the export application that has been available since the beginning of March.
In the SPD in particular there are great reservations about the delivery of tanks or artillery. He was “amazed at how quickly one calls for heavy weapons,” said foreign policy expert and former governing mayor of Berlin, Michael Müller, on NTV. One must keep an eye on the danger of a possible escalation spiral.
There is a slim majority in the population for the delivery of heavy weapons. In a Forsa survey for the RTL and NTV trend barometer, 51 percent of respondents were in favor of it, while 37 percent were against it.
When asked whether Germany would also supply tanks or other heavy weapons, Scholz himself said that the G7 countries had “come to similar conclusions with their military” not to send such weapons to Ukraine.
However, the German armaments industry has drawn up a list of the material they can deliver in the near future. “Ukraine has now adopted a selection from that list and we are providing it with the money to purchase it,” said the Chancellor. A part of However, two billion euros are also intended to be used by states that are now passing on armaments from the Soviet Union to Ukraine, to procure replacements.
However, the planned procedure quickly brought new critics onto the scene. Because the money should come from the supplementary budget. In this extra budget, which will be decided in addition to the normal budget, the federal government wants to bundle all special expenses incurred as a result of the Ukraine war.
The problem: The special budget will not be finally decided by the Bundestag until June at the earliest, maybe not until July. Only then would the funds be released for Ukraine. Until then, a lot of time will pass. Time that Ukraine may not have.
CDU foreign politician Norbert Röttgen described the procedure as “a transparent trick”. The government is suggesting that Ukraine will be helped “on a large scale”, but that is not the case immediately. “Ukraine needs the weapons now,” said Röttgen.
With an “exceeded budgeted expenditure” the federal government could quickly provide money
In fact, the federal government would have the opportunity to help Ukraine immediately: through a so-called “overspending” in the regular federal budget. With this instrument, the government can release budget funds immediately through the budget committee in the Bundestag.
During the corona crisis, she made constant use of this option. For example, more than two billion euros were made available for the procurement of protective clothing, and a lot of money also quickly flowed for international vaccine aid.
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Representatives of the traffic light coalition also drew attention to this possibility after Röttgen’s criticism. But then the question arises: why does the federal government not use the instrument in the case of Ukraine?
According to a traffic light politician, the federal government did not want to simply transfer money to Ukraine, but rather provide the money for specific armaments. The only question is what can be delivered at all. The already manageable stocks of the Bundeswehr are empty.
The possibility remains that Ukraine buys directly from the German armaments industry. However, when it comes to weapons of war such as tanks or artillery, a prerequisite is a corresponding export license.
The defense policy spokesman for the Union faction, Florian Hahn (CSU), called on the federal government to deliver everything that the Ukrainians can use and use quickly. Everything else that is in the room would not help much in the current situation. But one must realistically assume that the war will last for months, Hahn told the Handelsblatt. “It would therefore be negligent not to think about training Ukrainian soldiers in Germany now.” Many of Germany’s allies have already done so.
More on this: Foreign policy expert Guntram Wolff: “It would be important to deliver heavy weapons” – expert criticizes hesitant federal government