Scholz defends Germany’s commitment to secure Ukraine arms amid growing criticism

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany will continue to support Ukraine militarily although it has practically maxed-out the weapons it can deliver from its own stocks and is instead working with its armaments industry and other nations to send more, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday.

Scholz is facing growing frustration at home as well as abroad with what critics say is his lack of leadership on Ukraine. Even members of the junior partners in his three-way coalition are now openly accusing him of dithering on Ukrainian pleas to send it more heavy weapons.

Speaking after participating in a call with Western allies including U.S. President Joe Biden, Scholz said they were coordinating more weapons deliveries to Ukraine to ensure it could fend off Russia’s invasion.

Asked however if Germany would send Leopard tanks, he said the Western allies – not just Berlin – agreed it made sense to send Ukraine arms it could immediately deploy. As such, the allies would enable East European countries to hand over Soviet weapons it was familiar with by committing to replacing them, he said.

Moreover Berlin was liaising between German military equipment makers and Ukraine to deliver the country weapons like anti-tank and air defence weapons.

“We will provide the necessary money for the purchase,” said Scholz.

Scholz must balance pressure from the Greens and Free Democrats to step up arms supplies to Ukraine with some reticence among elements of his Social Democrats (SPD), which long advocated Western rapprochement with Russia prior to the war in Ukraine.

Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, the head of parliament’s defence committee and a member of the FDP, criticized Scholz for not delivering more concrete details.

“We are still lagging behind” on weapons deliveries, she wrote on Twitter.

In a poll by Forsa published on Tuesday by broadcasters RTL and NTV, some 52% were unsatisfied with Scholz’s work compared to just 31% and 34% for Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and EConomy Minister Robert Habeck, both from the Greens.

Support for the SPD dropped 2 percentage points over the past week to 25%, putting them neck-to-neck with the conservatives, up one percentage point.

(Reporting by Thomas Escritt, Sarah Marsh and Andreas Rinke; Editing by Catherine Evans, William Maclean)