Germany will send Ukraine another tranche of military aid worth 400m euros, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in an interview with Bild.
According to him, the new package will include high-explosive and mortar ammunition, rockets, armored vehicles and demining systems. “Ammunition is what Ukraine needs most to defend itself against a brutal invasion war”, Pistorius said.
Ukraine will also receive warm clothing, power generators and heaters as winter approaches. “Our assistance is multi-layered. In addition to providing weapons and equipment, we are training Ukrainian soldiers in Germany. By the end of the year there will be 10,000 of them. As part of the Ramstein format, we will consider even more assistance with training”, Pistorius said.
At the same time, he admitted that the decision to supply Ukraine with long-range Taurus cruise missiles with a 500-km radius of destruction had not been made yet.
In August, Olaf Scholz’s office asked the Defense Ministry to provide data on Taurus in order to find out how many such missiles the Bundeswehr has, assess their effectiveness and calculate the risks. T-online’s sources in the country’s ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD) noted that the government is also discussing the issue with the United States, as coordinated action with Washington is a prerequisite for approving the delivery of new weapons systems to Kyiv.
In its turn, the Joe Biden administration is considering sending Ukraine long-range ATACMS missiles as early as this fall to support the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian armed forces, the Wall Street Journal quoted White House officials as saying.
Last week, German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock said that solving the Taurus issue was not as easy as it seemed, because from the very beginning of the war, Western countries warned Kiev that the transferred weapons were allowed to be used only for the defense of the country’s territory.
Germany is the second largest military supporter of Ukraine in the world. The German government noted that such assistance would amount to 5.4 billion euros in 2023, compared to 2 billion euros last year.
