Der Spiegel: Berlin to Boost Aid to Kyiv up to 15bn Euros

Germany may increase financial and military support to Ukraine - from the current three to more than 15 billion euros, the weekly Der Spiegel, citing a confidential letter from the German Finance Ministry to the Bundestag on Monday, March 27. According to the news outlet, Florian Toncar, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Minister of Finance of Germany, formulated a request in an email to the Bundestag Committee on Budgetary Affairs to increase funding for the budget items that allocate funds for aid to Ukraine. According to the document, the amount of 2.2 billion euros planned for this year for “modernization of partner states in the field of security, defense and stabilization” should be increased to 5.4 billion euros. In addition, Der Spiegel reported that another 8.8 billion euros should be allocated for “commitment allocations” in the coming years. Thus, the Ministry of Defense of Germany would be able to conclude contracts within this amount. As of now, the German budget envisages €1 billion for this item of expenditure, the newspaper writes. Germany will help Ukraine to offset material losses Der Spiegel cites excerpts from Toncar’s confidential letter explaining the need for more funds, “Due to the high material losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, new supplies of materials are needed.” “To sustainably equip the Ukrainian Armed Forces in accordance with their needs, it is necessary to immediately conclude numerous procurement contracts that also justify payment obligations for future budget years,” the document further states. The plan is to buy, first of all, air defense equipment, armored fighting vehicles, as well as ammunition for weapons systems supplied by Germany and artillery. According to the German Finance Ministry, the additional expenditures are “objectively unavoidable” “because without continued support for Ukraine there is a serious risk that Ukraine will lose in its defensive struggle against the Russian aggressor, with unpredictable consequences for the European peace order.”