Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will leave Berlin with a new \u20ac5 billion ($5.7bn) arms package as he seeks to build his country\u2019s arsenal, and its ability to produce weapons at home. <\/p>\n
The standout agreement in the package announced in the German capital on Wednesday centers around Germany financing the joint production of long-range missiles inside Ukraine that would enable Kyiv to strike targets deep into Russia. <\/p>\n
Also included in the announcement were more air defense systems, weapons, ammunition, \u201ccommand and operational\u201d capabilities and medical assistance. <\/p>\n
One significant aspect was missing. There had been big expectations prior to the news conference that Merz would announce the transfer or approval of Ukraine\u2019s use of Germany\u2019s highly sophisticated long-range Taurus missiles. <\/p>\n
Merz had been very strong on ensuring Ukraine received Taurus during the election campaign against Olaf Scholz, the former chancellor, of the Social Democrats. Scholz and the party were very reticent to send the weapons, worried it may escalate the conflict even further. <\/p>\n
It appears that Merz\u2019s own fledging coalition with the Social Democrats \u2013 now the junior partners in government \u2013 appears to have its own significant disagreement on Taurus. <\/p>\n
One member of Merz\u2019s party, the Christian Democrats, tweeted on Tuesday: \u201cI still see no unity within the coalition and no political will to respond appropriately, with force and consistency to Russia\u2019s massive escalation.\u201d <\/p>\n
The system would allow Ukraine to strike targets far beyond the capabilities of British Storm Shadow and American-made ATACAM missiles. <\/p>\n
But standing shoulder to shoulder with Zelensky in Berlin, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said: \u201cWe will be expanding this support so that Ukraine, now and in the future, can continue to defend itself against Russian aggression.\u201d <\/p>\n
Merz added that \u201cthis is the beginning of a new phase of industrial military cooperation between our countries that has a great deal of potential.\u201d <\/p>\n
However, in keeping with a new edict from the chancellor and his new government, tangible details of that deal were not forthcoming. It has made a conscious decision to withhold information around weapons exchanges to ensure \u201cstrategic ambiguity.\u201d <\/p>\n
The deal nevertheless signifies a major step in deepening the co-operation between Germany and Ukraine, particularly in terms of arms procurement. <\/p>\n
It also marked the third meeting in as many weeks between the two leaders \u2013 especially significant given that Merz has only been chancellor for three weeks. <\/p>\n
A later statement released from the German defense ministry said it plans \u201cto invest more directly in Ukrainian production in the future.\u201d <\/p>\n
Zelensky appeared to hint at today\u2019s agreements before leaving Kyiv for Germany\u2019s capital. In his nightly address on Tuesday he said, \u201cattack drones, interceptors, cruise missiles, Ukrainian ballistic systems \u2013 these are the key elements. We must manufacture all of them.\u201d <\/p>\n
The German defense ministry statement suggested that some of these systems may be close to deployment. \u201cA significant number of long-range weapons (are) to be produced within this year,\u201d it read. \u201cThe first of these systems could be deployed by Ukrainian armed forces in just a few weeks.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThey are simply trying to provoke further war, thus increasing their indirect involvement in this military affair,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
Germany has long been one of Ukraine\u2019s most generous supporters in terms of committed aid. In both military and humanitarian assistance, according to figures from the Kiel Institute, Germany ranks second only behind the United States. <\/p>\n
In Berlin, both Zelensky and Merz spoke about their frustration with Russia regarding peace negotiations, in particular a promise about a memorandum from Moscow following a call between Putin and US President Donald Trump on May 19, which doesn\u2019t appear to have yet materialized. <\/p>\n
Merz said: \u201cI would like to thank the American president in recent weeks. Moscow on the other hand is playing for time. The memorandum still has not been shared.\u201d Germany\u2019s leader added that that recent attacks across Ukraine \u201cspeak the language of aggression.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will leave Berlin with a new \u20ac5 billion ($5.7bn) arms package as he seeks to build his country\u2019s arsenal, and its ability to produce weapons at home. The standout agreement in the package announced in the German capital on Wednesday centers around Germany financing the joint production of long-range missiles inside […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":13880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}