Germany hoping to increase its military aid to Ukraine to up to €15 billion in coming years

The German government wants to increase spending on military aid to Ukraine from €3 billion to €15 billion over the coming years.

Source: Spiegel, citing a confidential letter from German Finance Minister Christian Lindner to the Bundestag Budget Committee

Details: In the letter, Florian Toncar, a Free Democratic Party politician and Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance, asks the German parliament to allocate more funds to support Ukraine.

The letter explains that the federal government wants to drastically increase its military aid for Ukraine in the coming years. In order to do so, it needs the approval of the Budget Committee, which is expected to grant this approval. A cross-party majority in the Bundestag supports Ukraine, with the exception of the left and the Alternative for Germany faction.

"In light of the significant material losses sustained by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, new supplies of material resources are needed. To ensure that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are equipped in accordance with their needs, it is necessary to immediately conclude numerous procurement contracts that also establish payment obligations for future fiscal years," the Finance Ministry said.

These include material resources related to air defence, as well as "armoured tracked vehicles, ammunition for weapons systems supplied by Germany, and artillery," the letter to the Budget Committee reads.

The additional costs are "objectively unavoidable," Toncar wrote, "because without continued support for Ukraine, there is a serious risk that Ukraine will lose its struggle against the Russian aggressor, with unpredictable consequences for the European peace order".

The German government has allocated €2.2 billion for "modernising partner countries in the spheres of security, defence and stabilisation" in the current fiscal year. The Ministry of Defence is using this money to pay for a large part of the arms supplies to Ukraine, as well as to replace systems that were transferred from the Bundeswehr, the German Armed Forces.

This amount will be more than doubled this year, increasing by €3.2 billion to more than €5.4 billion.

But that is not all. In the coming years, another €8.8 billion will be allocated for "commitment authorisations". This means that the Ministry of Defence can enter into contracts for the corresponding amount. So far, only €1 billion have been earmarked for this purpose. Overall, aid to Ukraine will be increased from the current €3.2 billion to more than €15 billion.

At a closed session on Tuesday, 28 March, members of the German parliament will decide what exactly the additional money will be used for. The drastic increase in aid took many of them by surprise – a surprise most welcomed.

Background: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has confirmed that the Leopard 2 tanks promised by the government in Berlin have arrived in Ukraine.

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