At the beginning of March, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (63, SPD) promised Ukraine to deliver 2,700 anti-aircraft missiles. So far, however, only 500 have arrived, as the “WELT am SONNTAG” learned from Ukrainian government circles!
By Nils Kottmann
They were only handed over on Thursday. Bitter: According to government insiders, no further deliveries of the Strela missiles are planned.
The Federal Ministry of Defense only wanted to confirm to the newspaper that there were deliveries to Ukraine. The ministry could not give any further details “due to the classification of the information resulting from the current security situation”.
This makes the delivery of arms a total disgrace for the federal government. Because: As early as March 3, the “Spiegel” found out that 700 of the promised rockets from the old GDR stocks were no longer ready for use. According to BILD information, the weapons, which are at least 35 years old, were blocked for use in 2012. Reason: “Microcracks in the ammunition’s propellant charge, which led to corrosion/oxidation.”
▶︎ Particularly embarrassing: According to “Spiegel”, the wooden boxes in which the rockets are stored were so moldy in November that Bundeswehr soldiers were only allowed to enter the storage facilities with protective equipment.
Germany has so far sent few arms and support to Ukraine compared to the US. It started with 5000 helmets, which took a whole month to arrive in Ukraine.
At the beginning of this year’s crisis in Ukraine, the German government repeatedly emphasized that it would not supply weapons, but would provide other support.
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On February 26th, two days after Kremlin despot Putin had started his major attack on the neighboring country, there was a sudden change of heart in the federal government: Germany is now supplying weapons after all!
As government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit (49) announced at the time, the Ukrainian armed forces were being supported with 1,000 anti-tank weapons “Panzerfaust 3” and 500 surface-to-air missiles of the “Fliegerfaust 2 Stinger” type.
The weapons arrived in Ukraine just three days after the German government had promised and have already been used there against Russian troops.
For comparison, the US has already sent weapons and equipment worth 1.09 billion euros.