German military in worse shape than before Russia’s invasion -official

BERLIN (Reuters) – The German military is suffering from a greater shortage of weapons and equipment than before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces said in her annual report on Tuesday.

“The Bundeswehr has too little of everything, and it has even less since (Russia’s invasion on) Feb. 24, 2022,” Eva Hoegl, who acts as an advocate defending the rights of the troops, told reporters in Berlin.

She denounced the government for being slow not only in spending the 100 billion euro special fund set up last year to bring the forces back up to scratch, but also in replenishing the military’s stocks after rushing arms to Kyiv.

“Our troops welcome the support for Ukraine although it tears big holes (into their stocks) when howitzers, multiple rocket launchers or Leopard tanks are handed over to Kyiv,” Hoegl said, demanding orders to be placed more swiftly.

“It must be clear that the moment (a howitzer) is handed over to Ukraine, the process of ordering a replacement must be launched,” she said.

Hoegl also urged officials to speed up the modernisation of barracks that she described as being in a disgraceful state all over the country, criticising a lack of working toilets, clean showers and Wifi.

She put the investment needs for updating the infrastructure at 50 billion euros in total.

(Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Editing by Nick Macfie)