Germany approves additional €3bn for Ukraine this year, Reuters says
The German government under Olaf Scholz has allocated an additional €3 billion in military aid to Ukraine for 2025.
Source: Reuters, as reported by European Pravda
Details: German Finance Minister Jörg Kukies informed the parliament's budget committee in a letter, quoted by Reuters, that the requirements for allocating additional funds for Ukraine had been met.
In the letter, the German Finance Ministry approved additional spending of €2.547 billion for 2025. Including other expenditures, such as reimbursements from the European Peace Facility, Germany's total allocation will amount to €3 billion.
Kukies' letter states that Germany will commit €8.252 billion in military aid to Ukraine from 2026 to 2029. This brings the total increase in assistance to over €11 billion.
The budget committee is expected to approve the allocation on Friday 21 March, provided that the Bundesrat's upper house passes the reform allowing multi-billion-euro investments.
Background: On Tuesday 18 March, the Bundestag, the German parliament's lower house, approved a fundamental change in fiscal rules aimed at increasing military spending and boosting economic growth.
Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Russian strike on Kharkiv on 7 June: death toll rises to three, up to five people may be trapped under rubble
The death toll from the Russian strike on 7 June on the city of Kharkiv has increased to three as the body of a deceased person was discovered under the rubble of business premises. Source: Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov Quote: "A body was discovered during search and rescue operations at the territory of a business that came under attack on 7 June. The extraction process is ongoing." Details: Terekhov said the work is ongoing around the clock. "According to our information, up to five more people may still be trapped under the rubble," he concluded. Background: At around 17:35 on 7 June, Russia attacked the Shevchenkivskyi and Kyivskyi districts of Kharkiv with four guided aerial bombs. A 30-year-old Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian Railways) employee was killed. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported that more than 40 people were injured. Late on the evening of 7 June, Oleh Syniehubov, Head of Kharkiv Oblast Military Administration, reported that a 62-year-old man had died in hospital as a result of the strike and that two more people remained in a critical condition. It was later reported that Volodymyr Kovtun, an instructor at the children's railway in Kharkiv, had died in hospital from injuries he sustained. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Israel commits 'extermination' in Gaza by killing in schools, UN experts say
By Francois Murphy VIENNA (Reuters) -U.N. experts said in a report on Tuesday that Israel committed the crime against humanity of "extermination" by killing civilians sheltering in schools and religious sites in Gaza, part of a "concerted campaign to obliterate Palestinian life." The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel was due to present the report to Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council on June 17. "We are seeing more and more indications that Israel is carrying out a concerted campaign to obliterate Palestinian life in Gaza," former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, who chairs the commission, said in a statement. "Israel's targeting of the educational, cultural and religious life of the Palestinian people will harm the present generations and generations to come, hindering their right to self-determination," she added. The commission examined attacks on educational facilities and religious and cultural sites to assess if international law was breached. Israel disengaged from the Human Rights Council in February, alleging it was biased. When the commission's last report in March found Israel carried out "genocidal acts" against Palestinians by systematically destroying women's healthcare facilities during the conflict in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the findings were biased and antisemitic. In its latest report, the commission said Israel had destroyed more than 90% of the school and university buildings and more than half of all religious and cultural sites in Gaza. "Israeli forces committed war crimes, including directing attacks against civilians and wilful killing, in their attacks on educational facilities ... In killing civilians sheltering in schools and religious sites, Israeli security forces committed the crime against humanity of extermination," it said. The war was triggered when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in Israel in a surprise attack in October 2023, and took 251 hostages back to the enclave, according to Israeli tallies. Israel responded with a military campaign that has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. Harm done to the Palestinian education system was not confined to Gaza, the report found, citing increased Israeli military operations in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well as harassment of students and settler attacks there. "Israeli authorities have also targeted Israeli and Palestinian educational personnel and students inside Israel who expressed concern or solidarity with the civilian population in Gaza, resulting in their harassment, dismissal or suspension and in some cases humiliating arrests and detention," it said. "Israeli authorities have particularly targeted female educators and students, intending to deter women and girls from activism in public places," the commission added.
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Israel set to deport Greta Thunberg, other activists, ministry says
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Greta Thunberg and other pro-Palestinian activists have been taken to Tel Aviv airport ahead of their deportation, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, after the Israeli navy prevented them from sailing to Gaza. Israeli forces boarded the charity vessel as it neared Gaza early on Monday, trying to break through a years-old naval blockade of the coastal enclave, and seized the 12-strong crew, including Swedish campaigner Thunberg. The British-flagged yacht was taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod and the foreign ministry said the activists were transferred overnight to Ben Gurion airport. "Some of the 'Selfie Yacht' passengers are expected to leave within the next few hours," the ministry said in a statement. "Those who refuse to sign deportation documents and leave Israel will be brought before a judicial authority, in accordance with Israeli law, to authorize their deportation." Consular representatives from the passengers' home countries met them at the airport, it added. The activists had been carrying a small cargo of humanitarian aid, including rice and baby formula, and said they wanted to raise international awareness about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which has been devastated by months of war. Israel dismissed the voyage as a pro-Hamas publicity stunt. 'The tiny amount of aid that was on the yacht and not consumed by the 'celebrities' will be transferred to Gaza through real humanitarian channels,' the Foreign Ministry said. Thunberg accused Israel of kidnapping her in international waters. "I urge all my friends, family and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible," she said in a video that was recorded ahead of the Israeli navy action. U.S. President Donald Trump dismissed Thunberg's claim of being kidnapped. 'I think Israel has enough problems without kidnapping Greta Thunberg,' he said. 'She's a young, angry person ... I think she has to go to an anger management class.' Israel has imposed a naval blockade on the coastal enclave since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, saying it aims to stop weapons from reaching Hamas. The blockade has remained in place through conflicts including the war, which began when Hamas-led militants rampaged through southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, by Israeli tallies. Israel's retaliatory offensive against Hamas has since killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in Hamas-run Gaza, and destroyed most of the homes of its 2.3 million residents.
