The German authorities assure that they have allocated more than 17 billion euros in aid to Ukraine. This figure includes support for refugees, which is why some experts criticize Berlin for the way it is calculated.
Olaf Scholz’s government overstates Germany’s spending on defense and assistance to the Ukrainian army. This was reported by Deutsche Welle.
In the article, the journalists drew attention to the fact that Defense Minister Boris Pistorius was instructed to modernize the German armed forces. This reform has recently been curtailed. The government will barely reach the planned NATO spending in the federal budget for 2024.
Scholz promised his partners in Europe and the United States that Germany will achieve this goal in the future. This happened after the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops. NATO countries have committed to spending 2% of their budgets annually.
An additional 100 billion euros ($108 billion) was promised to the Bundeswehr for modernization. This is a special fund with a budget approved by the Bundestag. It was established primarily for the purchase of modern military equipment, but it turned out that assistance to Ukraine now comes from this budget as well. This year, Germany plans to spend 8 billion euros on weapons for Ukraine.
In addition, Germany claims that it has sent over 17 billion euros in aid to Ukraine. According to CDU member and foreign and security policy expert Roderich Kiesewetter, this figure includes support for refugees. He criticized the way Germany calculates how much aid it provides to Ukraine. According to him, the actual figures do not correspond to the previously announced ones.
“The figures are overstated… We have carefully analyzed what has actually been delivered and found that it is between 4 and 5 billion euros over the past two years,” Kiesewetter explained.
German aid for Ukraine
After a telephone conversation with US President Joe Biden on January 17, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced military aid to Ukraine worth more than 7 billion euros. According to him, he and the American leader were united in their desire to continue to support Ukrainians in their fight against the Russian occupiers.
In late December, Germany sent Ukraine a “winter” energy aid package worth almost €90 million. Ukrainian power engineers are using equipment purchased with German funds to repair destroyed power plants and substations to provide heat and electricity to the population.
On January 15, the German MP was shown a Su-24 with Storm Shadow missiles. According to Markus Faber, Germany has several hundred Taurus missiles that would make the work of Ukrainian pilots safer.
