Chancellor Olaf Scholz has promised to send Ukraine heavy weapons, including air defence systems, though Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was quick to dash hopes of speedy delivery.
Speaking in front of the Bundestag on Wednesday (1 June), Scholz said Germany would provide Ukraine with a modern Iris-T air defence system set up to help protect Ukrainian cities from airstrikes and a tracking radar for detecting Russian artillery.
Later the same day, citing government sources, several German media reported that Berlin is also planning to supply Ukraine with four ‘Mars II’ multiple rocket launchers from German arms manufacturer Krauss-Maffei-Wegmann.
Mirroring comments by US officials, Scholz stressed during his address that Germany would not supply Kyiv with any weapons that could be used to attack Russian territory.
However, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock dampened hopes that the promised arms systems could be delivered quickly. “Yes, this takes some time, namely, several months,” she said concerning the Iris-T air defence system.
Germany has already been slow in following through on earlier promises, leading many Ukrainians to greet Scholz’s announcement with lukewarm reactions.
“Sounds great. Hopefully, the transfer is not going to take five years or so,” Kyiv Independent defence reporter Illia Ponomarenko commented via Twitter.
The news also comes one day after Scholz announced a swap deal with Greece to deliver arms to Ukraine. Berlin will deliver modern tanks to Athens in exchange for it delivering Soviet-era tanks to Ukraine.