Germany reduces aid to Ukraine

2024-08-16 17:30:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Illustrative photo, taken from Google

More than two and a half years after Russian aggression against Ukraine, Germany is considering cutting military aid to Kiev by 50%. As Voice of America correspondent Ricardo Marquina from Berlin reports, Germany is the largest donor of the European bloc to Ukraine and ranks second after the United States, but the internal policies of the European state are casting doubt on this role.

The Bundestag is preparing next year's budget that foresees halving military support for Ukraine, from $8.8 billion to $4.4 billion. The ruling coalition parties deny the opposition's accusations that Berlin's commitment to Ukraine has been called into question.

Ulrich Lechte is the foreign affairs spokesman for the FDP party, a member of the governing coalition in Germany.

"The three coalition parties, the Social Democrats, the Green Party and the Liberals, are still fully supporting Ukraine. Only among the social democrats is there a part of the old belief that peace must be achieved without weapons. That's great, but I don't see that this can be achieved with Putin."

The official explanation of the parties is that the frozen Russian assets could generate billions of dollars for Ukraine under a plan from the G-7 countries.

But since mid-2022, sanctions have prevented Germany from buying cheap natural gas from Russia. Germany had to buy gas at much higher prices from expensive suppliers such as Norway.

Economists say this has fueled inflation in Germany, which reached 10 percent in 2022.

Marcel Fratzscher, president of the German Institute for Economic Research, explains that inflation has been even higher in some sectors.

"Energy and initial costs in the first year after the start of the war increased by more than 50%. Food prices over the last three years in Germany have increased by more than 35%.

Germans say rising prices are hurting their pockets.

"Extremely. Everything has increased, from the price of transportation to food," a Berlin resident told the Voice of America.

Kerstin Schulz, a primary school teacher, agrees.

"Restaurants are much more expensive. I think a lot of people don't go out as much anymore because it feels in your pocket."

Far-right and radical left parties are taking advantage of the situation. These parties, the minority in parliament, are gaining popular support.

The left-wing BSW party, with 10 deputies out of 733 in the Bundestag, is among those calling for an end to support for Ukraine.

The Voice of America spoke with the legislator of this party, Sevim Dagdelen.

"Those who want to end death and war should send diplomats to Ukraine, not weapons."

The AfD, the right-wing party with 116 members in the German parliament, has a similar argument.

"We don't want to send our equipment to Ukraine because we will need it to defend our country," says Norbert Kleinwächter, a lawmaker from the AfD party in the German parliament.

Polls suggest that a majority of Germans continue to support Ukraine's armed resistance to Russian aggression, but this number is gradually falling.

A recent poll by the European Parliament shows that more than 40% of Germans consider financial support for Ukraine excessive, and the same poll showed that support for Kyiv's EU membership has fallen from 58 to 53 percent./ VOA