Germany approves 3 billion euros in new military aid for Ukraine
The money is earmarked for defence equipment for the country fighting Russian forces, including artillery munitions and air defence systems, government officials have said.
The three billion euros now released, after months of delay, come on top of four billion euros in Ukraine military aid already planned in the budget for 2025.
A further 8.3 billion euros were earmarked for Kyiv for 2026 to 2029 by a parliamentary budget committee, although this may be topped up with more spending from a
major new fiscal package that passed a final hurdle Friday.
Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said the latest package would include units of the German-made Iris-T air defence systems that had yet to be built and would be delivered over the next two years.
Germany has been Ukraine's second-largest supplier of military aid, worth some 28 billion euros so far, after the United States since Russia launched its full-scale invasion over three years ago.
But the situation has changed dramatically since US President Donald Trump has reached out to Russia's Vladimir Putin to end the war and frozen military aid for Ukraine, while casting doubt on the future strength of NATO ties.
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Russia and Ukraine on Friday traded accusations of massive overnight attacks, three days before both sides will hold talks with US officials in Saudi Arabia on how to halt the war.
Both countries have said they agree with a 30-day pause in strikes on energy targets, though they have continued their aerial attacks unabated and each has repeatedly accused the other of breaking the truce, which has not been formally agreed.
Germany's chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz has pushed through a spending "bazooka" worth hundreds of billions that also loosens Germany's so-called debt brake to bolster its own armed forces and keep backing Ukraine.
Merz's conservatives are in coalition talks with the SPD of outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who has also vowed that Germany would keep supporting Kyiv.
Ukraine "can rely on us and we will never leave it on its own," Scholz said at a European Council summit late Thursday.
"It will also need a strong army in times of peace, and it must not be put in danger by any peace agreement."
The three-billion-euro package had been held up for months after Scholz's three-way coalition imploded last November amid bitter infighting, mostly on fiscal questions.
Earlier Friday, Germany's upper house of parliament gave the final approval to easing Germany's fiscal straightjacket for defence spending and for a 500-billion-euro infrastructure fund.
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