German Government to Restrict Military Aid to Ukraine, According to FAS

The German government plans to limit military aid to Ukraine, according to the German publication Frankfurter Allgemeiner Sonntagszeitung (FAS) on Saturday, August 17.

According to the newspaper, Finance Minister Christian Lindner informed Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on August 5 that only the aid already approved for Ukraine will be allocated, and no new requests will be approved. FAS cites internal government documents and sources for this information.

The spokesperson for the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Heorhii Tykhyi, explained that Germany is currently in the midst of its budgetary process. According to him, the budget is expected to be approved in November, and only then will the level of support for Ukraine for the year 2025 be known. He assured that the Ukrainian side continues to work with German partners to maintain and strengthen support for Ukraine. "We emphasize that every euro invested in strengthening the defense capability of our state is a contribution to the security of all of Europe in the context of Russian aggression," highlighted the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Germany is a leading country in providing military assistance to Ukraine within the EU. This year, Germany has allocated approximately eight billion euros for military support to Ukraine. For the next year, around four billion euros have been approved.

The German government has previously discussed halting continuous payments from the federal budget for military support to Ukraine. Instead, Berlin plans to finance arms supplies using frozen assets of the Russian central bank. Around 300 billion dollars have been frozen by Ukraine’s global allies due to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It is still legally unclear whether the interest earned from these assets can be used to fund weapon supplies.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Finance Minister Lindner expect Ukraine to cover a significant portion of its military needs using these funds, FAS reports. Meanwhile, as explained to the newspaper by Andreas Schwarz, a member of the Bundestag Budget Committee and representative of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, it is currently unknown whether, from a legal perspective, this is feasible and how quickly the funds can be utilized for Ukraine’s needs.