Germany Will Reduce Half Military Aid For Ukraine
JAKARTA - Germany will halve military aid for Ukraine next year, even with the possibility of Republican candidate Donald Trump returning to the White House and limiting support for Kyiv.
German aid to Ukraine will be cut to 4 billion euros (4.35 billion US dollars) by 2025 from around 8 billion euros by 2024, according to the 2025 budget draft seen by Reuters.
Germany hopes Ukraine will be able to meet most of its military needs with a loan of 50 billion US dollars from the frozen proceeds of Russian assets approved by the Group of Seven, and allocated funds for weapons will not be fully used.
As reported by Reuters on Wednesday, July 17, Washington is pushing to make a loan upfront to give Ukraine a large amount of money now.
Officials say EU leaders agree with the idea as it reduces Ukraine's chances of a lack of funds if Trump returns to the White House.
The warning comes across Europe this week after Trump elected Senator J.D. Vance, who opposes military aid to Ukraine and warned Europe not to rely too much on the United States to defend the continent, as its vice presidential candidate.
Trump sparked strong criticism from Western officials for saying he would not protect countries that failed to meet the defense spending targets of transatlantic military alliances and would even encourage Russia to attack them.
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Germany has been criticized for repeatedly failing to achieve NATO's target of spending 2 percent of its economic output on defense.
The supply of the German armed forces, which has been reduced due to a lack of investment over the decades, is increasingly drained by the supply of weapons to Kyiv.
So far, Berlin has donated three Patriot air defense units to Kyiv, more than any other country, bringing the number of Patriot systems in Germany to nine.
The German coalition consisting of the left-leaning Social Democratic Party, pro-business liberals, and environmental activists in Germany has difficulty meeting NATO's spending targets because of the rules they set themselves that limit the amount of state loans they can receive.