It wasn’t so long ago that the German chancellor Olaf Scholz tried to convince fellow European leaders to do more to help Ukraine. Wherever he travelled in the spring, the message was the same: Vladimir Putin will only withdraw Russian troops ‘if he realises that he cannot win the war on the battlefield,’ Scholz told European social democrats at a meeting in April.
Now his coalition has decided to cut German military aid to Ukraine by half, Reuters reported, based on a draft of the 2025 budget. Next year, Europe’s largest economy intends to spend just €4 billion on supporting Kyiv against Russian aggression.
Germany’s finance minister Christian Lindner suggested at a press conference that this drastic cut will be compensated by other sources, arguing that ‘the financing of Ukraine is secured for the foreseeable future thanks to European instruments and G7 credits.’
The hope is that interest from frozen Russian assets could make up some of the shortfall.
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