More than a quarter of the weapons and military equipment delivered between January 1 and December 22 went to Russia-invaded Ukraine. This is evident from a response from the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs to a request from the left-wing member of the Bundestag Sevim Dagdelen. The letter is available from the German Press Agency.
In the coalition negotiations, at the insistence of the Social Democrats and the Greens, the government actually intended to curb arms exports. Then came the U-turn with the war in Ukraine. The self-imposed ban on arms transfers to war zones was reversed on February 27 by Chancellor Olaf Scholz in his “Zeitenwende” speech – a break with principles that have been in place for decades.
Since then, 2.24 billion euros worth of arms shipments have been approved for Ukraine. However, the high total value of export licenses is not only due to this. Even without Ukraine, exports worth more than six billion euros were approved. In comparison, in the 16 years of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government, the 6 billion mark was only exceeded five times.
The left-wing politician Dagdelen strongly criticized the high total value: “The cabinet of SPD, FDP and Greens is responsible for the second highest export of weapons and war equipment of all time. Instead of limiting arms exports as promised, the traffic light delivers unscrupulously arms to war and crisis areas and profits from conflict and deaths.”
(SDA)