BERLIN: Germany on Friday approved three billion euros ($3.25 billion) in new military aid for Ukraine, just days before planned US-brokered talks with Moscow and Kyiv on a limited truce.
\nThe money is earmarked for defense equipment for the country fighting Russian forces, including munitions, drones, armored vehicles and air-defense systems.
\nThe parliament\u2019s budget committee gave the green light for the funds, which had been on hold for months amid discord in the coalition government of outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
\nBut the final adoption on Friday of a major new spending package that also eased Germany\u2019s strict debt rules for defense outlays gave the government new room for maneuver.
\nPresident Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Germany for the new aid in a post on X, saying it would provide \u201cexactly what Ukraine needs most \u2014 what saves Ukrainian lives.
\n\u201cThis means contracts with the German defense industry will now be signed for future \u2014 a significant step toward building long-term security guarantees,\u201d Zelensky said.
\n\u201cIt is also a recognition that Ukraine\u2019s army will become even stronger after the war ends, and Germany is committed to contributing to that.\u201d
\nGreens MP Britta Hasselmann, whose party has strongly pushed for Ukraine aid, expressed relief the new billions were being released, \u201calbeit late.\u201d
\nShe called it \u201ca strong signal to Ukraine, a signal that is absolutely necessary for peace and security in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new money comes on top of four billion euros in Ukraine military aid already planned in Germany\u2019s budget for 2025.
\nA further 8.3 billion euros were earmarked for Kyiv for 2026 to 2029.
\nGovernment spokesman Steffen Hebestreit has said the latest package would include units of the German-made Iris-T air-defense systems that had yet to be built and would be delivered over the next two years.
\nGermany has been Ukraine\u2019s second-largest supplier of military aid after the United States, contributing some 28 billion euros so far since Russia launched its full-scale invasion over three years ago.
\nBut the situation has changed dramatically since US President Donald Trump reached out to Russia\u2019s Vladimir Putin to end the war and suspended military aid to Ukraine. He also cast doubt on America\u2019s commitment to NATO.<\/p>\n
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.
\nBoth countries have said they agree with a 30-day pause in strikes on energy targets, though they have continued their aerial attacks unabated.
\nEach has repeatedly accused the other of breaking the truce, which has not been formally agreed.
\nGermany\u2019s chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz, whose party won February elections, has pushed through a spending package worth hundreds of billions to bolster Germany\u2019s armed forces and infrastructure and to keep backing Ukraine.
\nMerz\u2019s conservatives are in coalition talks with the SPD of Scholz, who has also vowed that Germany would keep supporting Kyiv.
\nUkraine \u201ccan rely on us and we will never leave it on its own,\u201d Scholz said at a European Council summit late Thursday.
\n\u201cIt will also need a strong army in times of peace, and it must not be put in danger by any peace agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BERLIN: Germany on Friday approved three billion euros ($3.25 billion) in new military aid for Ukraine, just days before planned US-brokered talks with Moscow and Kyiv on a limited truce. The money is earmarked for defense equipment for the country fighting Russian forces, including munitions, drones, armored vehicles and air-defense systems. The parliament\u2019s budget committee …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":78763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78764,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78748\/revisions\/78764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}