The German federal government is temporarily suspending the allocation of new funds to support Ukraine due to austerity measures, which has caused concern among the opposition and allies of Kyiv. This was reported by the publication "Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung" (FAS), referring to internal documents and statements of officials.
Additional applications from the German Ministry of Defense for military aid to Ukraine will no longer be approved at the request of Chancellor Olaf Scholz. This applies to new supplies of weapons and equipment, although already approved materials mostly continue to arrive. The reason for this decision was the cost-saving measures introduced both in the chancellor's office and in the Ministry of Finance.
On August 5, Finance Minister Christian Lindner sent a letter to Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, in which he announced the termination of new financial obligations regarding military aid to Ukraine. This ban is already in effect, and the situation may worsen for Ukraine, as a significant reduction in military support is planned for next year.
However, the situation in the Ministry of Finance is somewhat different. Lindner said that he does not expect a sudden reduction of funds for Ukraine, but emphasized that the funds will now come not from the federal budget, but from the frozen assets of the Russian central bank. After the start of Russia's large-scale attack, Ukraine's allies confiscated about 300 billion dollars, and at the summit of the G7 countries in Italy it was decided to use these funds to finance a 50 billion dollar loan for Ukraine.
Lindner expects that Ukraine will use this money to cover a large part of its military needs. In this case, German financial assistance would be temporarily unnecessary. However, the implementation of this decision is still far from complete and remains legally controversial. None of the federal agencies FAS spoke with knows how long it will take for these funds to arrive in Ukraine.
The opposition in Germany, especially representatives of the CDU and other politicians, express concern about such a decision. Ingo Gedehens, a budget politician from the opposition CDU, emphasized that day by day Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his coalition are effectively freezing financial and, therefore, military support to Ukraine.
This decision also coincides with the pre-election demands of "Alternative for Germany" and its leaders, who call for an immediate end to the support of Ukraine with weapons. The budget committee of the Bundestag confirmed that new orders for Ukraine are not currently being placed, as they are no longer funded.
