Germany pledges further €500 million in military aid to Ukraine
Germany will supply Ukraine with a further €500 million in military aid, most of it earmarked for delivery next year, a government spokesman said on Tuesday.
The equipment will include three IRIS-T anti-aircraft systems, "around a´dozen armed recovery vehicles, 20 rocket-launchers mounted on pick-ups... precision munition and anti-drone equipment," the spokesman told AFP.
Most of it will be delivered in 2023, he added.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his government, which has decided to invest €100 billion in modernising the German army, have come under heavy criticism in recent months, not least by Ukrainian authorities themselves, over its apparent reticence to supply weapons to Kyiv.
Though Germany has pledged to send a range of weapons to the war-torn nation - from self-propelled howitzers to multiple launch rocket systems and an air defence shield capable of protecting a “large city” from Russian strikes - the first deliveries were slow to arrive.
However, Scholz has batted off criticism of the delays, arguing that complicated modern weapons couldn't be delivered without Ukrainian troops first being trained how to use them.
READ ALSO: Why has Germany been slow to deliver weapons to Ukraine?
He has repeatedly claimed that, in terms of military aid and other financial support, Germany is among the countries doing the most for Ukraine.
Scholz had already said at the beginning of June that Berlin would provide the IRIS-T anti-aircraft system developed by German manufacturer Diehl.
On Tuesday, it emerged that Germany had registered almost one million Ukrainian refugees in the country since the start of the war.
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The equipment will include three IRIS-T anti-aircraft systems, "around a´dozen armed recovery vehicles, 20 rocket-launchers mounted on pick-ups... precision munition and anti-drone equipment," the spokesman told AFP.
Most of it will be delivered in 2023, he added.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his government, which has decided to invest €100 billion in modernising the German army, have come under heavy criticism in recent months, not least by Ukrainian authorities themselves, over its apparent reticence to supply weapons to Kyiv.
Though Germany has pledged to send a range of weapons to the war-torn nation - from self-propelled howitzers to multiple launch rocket systems and an air defence shield capable of protecting a “large city” from Russian strikes - the first deliveries were slow to arrive.
However, Scholz has batted off criticism of the delays, arguing that complicated modern weapons couldn't be delivered without Ukrainian troops first being trained how to use them.
READ ALSO: Why has Germany been slow to deliver weapons to Ukraine?
He has repeatedly claimed that, in terms of military aid and other financial support, Germany is among the countries doing the most for Ukraine.
Scholz had already said at the beginning of June that Berlin would provide the IRIS-T anti-aircraft system developed by German manufacturer Diehl.
On Tuesday, it emerged that Germany had registered almost one million Ukrainian refugees in the country since the start of the war.
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