Click to see the full-size image
Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
Berlin has spurned two key demands that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tried to “sell” during his European tour to promote his so-called Victory Plan: getting the green light for deep strikes into Russian territory (which would require German Taurus missiles, among others) and speeding up Ukraine’s accession to NATO, German media reported.
According to Bild, Zelensky had a packed itinerary that included a whirlwind tour of the UK, France, Italy, and Germany in a bid to garner Western support for his “Victory Plan.” However, the outlet emphasised that although German Chancellor Olaf Scholz did not give a categorical “no”, he did not respond positively to the Ukrainian requests.
Moreover, Bild said the chancellor’s talk about the promised “billions in aid for Ukraine” at a press conference with Zelensky was nothing more than a farce. This package does not include any new weapons since the amount and projects mentioned were, in fact, “already approved and financed last year.”
The outlet said Kiev’s hopes of obtaining more Leopard 2 tanks had been dashed despite the Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces) still having around 300 of the main battle tanks in its inventory. The same applies to infantry fighting vehicles and armoured howitzers. The decision comes as the German Defence Ministry does not believe that Kiev will be able to carry out a new counteroffensive in the near future, the sources told the newspaper.
“By the end of the year, with the support of Belgium, Denmark and Norway, we will deliver another package to Ukraine worth €1.4 billion,” Scholz announced on October 11.
According to him, the package includes IRIS-T and Skynex air defence systems, Gepard anti-aircraft guns, self-propelled artillery systems, armoured vehicles, combat drones and radars.
Germany, Ukraine’s second-largest military donor after the US, has so far provided (or planned) military assistance worth approximately €28 billion. However, according to the draft budget, it has halved its military aid to Ukraine for 2025 compared to this year.
Although Zelensky has long insisted that there can be no peace negotiations with the Kremlin and that Russian forces must be driven back to its pre-2014 borders, officials in Kiev reportedly realise this position is unrealistic. The leadership of the current Ukrainian administration is beginning to discuss the handover of territories claimed by Ukraine as part of a peace agreement with Russia, a high-ranking Ukrainian official admitted to a German magazine.
The unnamed source also expressed concern that Washington will cut its previously generous support for Ukraine no matter who wins next month’s US presidential election. The prospects of losing foreign military aid, which has prolonged the conflict so far, coupled with growing discontent in Ukrainian society, may explain Kiev’s shift in position from refusing to negotiate with Russia and its other irreducible demands.
However, the magazine warned that powerful figures in Ukraine still remain staunchly opposed to peace talks.
Kiev’s insistence on joining NATO is a major obstacle to efforts to resolve the Ukrainian conflict through diplomacy. In addition to recognising the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, Russia insists that Ukraine must remain neutral, non-nuclear and unaligned with any military bloc. The Kiev regime, which cancelled elections scheduled for this year and remains in power without being re-elected, is losing Western support and has been considering negotiating with Russia because of this.
At the same time as the German reports, government sources in Berlin said US President Joe Biden will visit Germany this week after cancelling a planned trip last week due to Hurricane Milton.
Senior German officials who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed media reports that Biden would most likely travel to Berlin within the week but declined to provide further details. According to German media, Biden will meet the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in Berlin on Friday for talks on Ukraine and the Middle East.
The original trip was cancelled, upending plans for a summit of the Ramstein group of countries providing weapons to Ukraine. The meeting at the US airbase of the same name would have discussed possible new aid commitments to Ukraine.
With Biden only after some weeks left in power before handing over the White House to Kamala Harris or Donald Trump, Ukraine has become a less important topic for the outgoing president as he instead aims to ensure that the Democrats remain in power. Coupled with German industry devastated due to anti-Russia sanctions boomeranging, it is easy to see why Ukraine has become a lessened priority for the country’s two largest donors, a projectory that will continue until the war finally concludes.
MORE ON THE TOPIC:
a bullet hit idf commander from the side in his mouth, and knocking out like load of teeth out. sanawa biatch! the prick will have to see oral surgeon. now traya 😃.
typical. of sf s level of support.
such a mess, isn’t it?
typical of sfs level of supporter
the big mouth strikes again.
you sounded just as stupid the second time.
so as a german who knows the state of the bundeswehr (rifles shoot around corners, submarines do not reappear, airplanes do not take off, soldiers are too fat, etc.), i am gradually getting the feeling that something is wrong with the taurus!
scholz is resisting the delivery of these things in an unknown manner, something is very strange there????
the bundeswehr used to be a very impressive force of 12 divisions with 4,500 tanks. highly respected by the red army. it was wrecked beyond repair when frau genocide was minister of defence. under her stewardship it was down to 60,000 with 32 tanks and 4 submarines that could not submerge.
americas the same after obomberz destruction, australia’s armed forces are the worst they’ve been for decades england’s saying they’re useless too its all a fraud set up a show a load of **it. with inentions to deceive the whole world.
she was probably just trying to return to and comply with the versailles treaty.
what a vrock
“something is very strange there????”
maybe bosch ran out of washing machine chips.
perhaps the ukrainians wanted to use it to do something so crasy that the germans fear russian maybe even chinese retaliation. perhaps striking nuclear facilitys, breaking dams or blowing up the russian pipelines which supply china. i dont think its the weapon but the plans and if you say they have the british and french equivalent perhaps someone in the usa deliberately wanted that the german weapons are used for something that truly crosses a line.
manipulators with experience. transparent as.
this is just theater it looks. if the deepstate wants missiles they will get them from somewhere else. in the meantime german war profiteer rheinmetall can make a lot of leopards. do not believe anything from msm it is all lies🥶
the little actor has gotten 100s of 1000s of his followers wiped out and his country re-mapped with the help of his nato friends. all by becoming a pawn of the globalists. bought with western tax money from more victims of this globalist political scheme
i dont think germany has even 30 working leopard 2 tanks .. to even think of 300 is insane. perhaps someone is confusing them wit hthe leopard 1 in stock.