(Bloomberg) -- Germany will continue to support Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion for as long as necessary, following concerns that budget issues will cause one of Kyiv’s biggest backers to pull back.
“We are still standing shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine,” Fabian Leber, a finance ministry spokesman, said in Berlin on Monday. He was responding to a weekend report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper that said spending constraints mean that financing for additional aid for Ukraine — on top of what has already been earmarked — won’t be available from the federal budget.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s ruling coalition and its international partners will be relying on part of the support for the government in Kyiv being funded from profits generated by frozen Russian central-bank assets, Leber told reporters Monday at a regular news conference.
The chancellor later emphasized that Germany’s goal was to promote conditions for a lasting peace, rather than a short-term halt to hostilities. It’s a slight shift in tone that puts emphasis on the goal of support for Kyiv.
“We have to support Ukraine so that it is not overrun and defends itself and Russia does not win,” Scholz said during a town hall meeting in Bremen. “We have to organize help and at the same time make sure that the end result is an agreement on peace that lasts as long as possible.”
Financing has become a major issue for Germany’s ruling coalition. The three-party alliance has been mired in bickering for months after a court ruling last year overturned billions of euros in funding, forcing budget cuts across the government. The three parties last sealed a final agreement on next year’s spending plan, only after weeks of squabbling over limited funds.
That puts more weight on plans to find alternatives to helping Ukraine buy weapons. The European Union, the US and other Group of Seven allies have been working to finalize plans to provide Ukraine with $50 billion in loans by the end of the year, following an agreement reached at a G-7 leaders’ summit in June.
Both Leber and Wolfgang Buechner, a deputy government spokesman, said Monday that Germany expects agreement on the plan by the end of this year so that Ukraine can start to receive the funds from 2025.
“The chancellor’s pledge still applies that support for Ukraine will continue for as long as it’s needed,” Buechner said. “Nobody, above all the Russian president, can hope that we will ease off.”
For the German government’s list of military equipment its sending to Ukraine click here.
--With assistance from Marilen Martin and Chris Reiter.
(Adds Scholz comments in fifth paragraph)
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
