According to a report, during the debate about the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine, the supply of light weapons also almost came to a standstill. The cheetah tanks are also a long time coming.
The German government has apparently reduced its military support to Ukraine to a minimum over the past nine weeks. So far, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has refused to supply German battle tanks and armored personnel carriers, citing agreements with NATO allies. But according to documents from Ukrainian government circles, which are available to “Welt am Sonntag”, since the end of March Germany has hardly supplied any significant light weapons.
Between March 30 and May 26, only two deliveries of arms from the federal government arrived in Ukraine. Both contained only small equipment. According to Ukraine, in mid-May Germany sent 3,000 anti-tank mines and 1,600 more special anti-tank directional mines. However, the main problem facing the Ukrainian army at the moment is the superior Russian firepower in the east of the country. This can counter them with mines little.
Another delivery from the federal government had reached Ukraine a month earlier. It contained only spare parts for machine guns, fuses, detonating cords, radios, hand grenades, explosive charges and mines. According to Ukraine, the last delivery of anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons took place on March 25, more than two months ago. It included 2,000 Panzerfaust 3 rockets and 1,500 Strela anti-aircraft missiles.
On request, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Defense said: “The information on specific weapon deliveries is security-relevant and classified, so I ask for your understanding that I can neither provide more detailed information nor confirm details.”
The announced deliveries of the first 15 Gepard anti-aircraft tanks to Ukraine are likely to continue to be delayed. As the newspaper learned from Kiev government circles, this has to do with the training of Ukrainian soldiers on German tanks. Accordingly, the training of the first 45 soldiers does not start until June 13th and ends on July 22nd. The second group of soldiers will start on July 18th and end on August 26th, which is why the 15 other cheetahs will not be delivered until the end of August.
The Federal Ministry of Defense said on request that it was “an export project by industry”. “The industry is also responsible for training Ukrainian soldiers and supplying ammunition,” said a spokeswoman.
(This article was first published on Sunday, May 29, 2022.)
