German defence minister urges finance minister to boost funding for Ukraine

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has urged the finance minister to allocate more funds for military assistance to Ukraine ahead of the upcoming NATO summit.

Pistorius emphasised the need for an additional four billion euros ($4.3 billion) for 2024, Caliber.Az reports citing the foreign media.

Pistorius appealed to German Finance Minister Christian Lindner for additional funding, noting that the approximately seven billion euros ($7.6 billion) allocated to support Kyiv in the current federal budget have been largely spent or committed through contracts. Less than 200,000 euros ($216,445) remain for new arms deliveries in the second half of 2024. Pistorius has already unofficially informed Lindner that military assistance to Ukraine should be increased by an additional four billion euros in the latter half of 2024. Pistorius plans to use these new funds to deliver more ammunition and possibly additional Leopard 1A tanks to Ukraine. However, Lindner has urged the German government to cut spending.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the beginning of a military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The president said that the goals are “demilitarisation” and “denazification” of the neighbouring country, as well as the protection of the civilian population of Donbas from “genocide by Kyiv authorities”. After the outbreak of hostilities, the Ukrainian authorities introduced martial law throughout the country and launched a general mobilisation. The partial mobilisation was announced in Russia in September 2022.