German defence minister urges Finance Ministry to allocate another €4 billion for weapons for Ukraine

Spiegel has learned that German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has asked Finance Minister Christian Lindner to allocate an additional €4 billion for military support to Ukraine this year.

According to Spiegel, about €7 billion allocated in the current federal budget to support Kyiv has already been largely used or is contractually tied up.

Only just under 200,000 euros remain for new deliveries in the second half of 2024. Therefore, Pistorius asked Finance Minister Christian Lindner to allocate additional funds.

Pistorius unofficially informed Lindner that the budget for arms aid to Ukraine should be increased by another €4 billion in the second half of 2024.

The newspaper wrote that Pistorius wants to use the money to provide Ukraine with more ammunition, urgently needed spare parts and possibly more Leopard 1A tanks this year.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Lindner urged the Federal Government to be frugal. Excessive spending, such as an additional €4 billion for Ukraine, is likely to be unpalatable to it. However, the Ministry of Defence believes that the supply of ammunition and spare parts is necessary to ensure that Ukraine can continue to defend itself against Russia.

During his visit to the troops in Alaska, Pistorius did not want to go into details of internal negotiations with Lindner but only indirectly confirmed conversations with him about new support funds.

"We are now working on mobilising additional funds so that we can continue our activities this year," the minister said.

Without additional money, the supplies from Germany that have been started so far are likely to stop in late autumn at the latest, the newspaper writes.

Only a few days ago, the German government announced that the third Patriot air defence system from the German armed forces had arrived in Ukraine.

A few weeks ago, the minister also announced that Berlin would provide Ukraine with additional artillery ammunition and 100 Patriot air defence interceptor missiles.