Ukrainian deputy FM: Germany hesitates to supply fighter jets, warships

Former Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany, Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk has said that Germany hesitates to supply fighter jets and warships to help Ukraine.

“The German government had been coming up with dozens of excuses for a whole year why the transfer of Leopard tanks to Ukraine was excluded and why it would be the last straw, after which the Russians would do something terrible and enter a new unprecedented round of escalation,” Melnyk said in an interview with RBC-Ukraine.

“Last week, 18 German tanks were finally handed over to us, hallelujah, Russian propagandists shouted a little and that’s it, the Kremlin became silent. Now we see that the new red line for Berlin is fighter jets, as well as warships,” he said.

He welcomed the fact that the German government and the administration of US President Joe Biden are much better at coordinating their actions, primarily in the context of supporting Ukraine, compared to the past.

“We would like to see competition among our key allies who will help Ukraine more. Now it is beneficial to our partners in terms of public opinion in Western countries. Of course, this is our trump card,” he added.

Melnyk said that if Poland had not “threatened” with the transfer of its Leopard tanks to Ukraine without the formal consent of Germany, if not for the decision of French President Emmanuel Macron on AMX-10 wheeled tanks, the promise of UK’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to supply Challenger 2 tanks and President Biden’s readiness to supply Abrams, Ukraine could stay without the German Leopard tanks.

“What do we see now? There is the same situation with Western fighter jets, not only F16 fighter jets, known to everybody but also those that are part of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) - these are the Eurofighter and Tornado. A million excuses are being invented again, why these combat aircraft will not help us, that they are outdated and so on,” he said.

Melnyk added that thanks to Ukraine’s media outlets, the number of Germans who support the transfer of fighter jets to the Air Force has increased from 20 per cent to 28 per cent over the past month, among Green Party voters this figure is 45 per cent.