Germany's military aid to Ukraine is 0.1% of GDP, we need 10 times more - deputy FM
Germany has provided Ukraine with military assistance in the amount of 0.1% of its GDP, but for Berlin to really be a leader on the continent, it must be at least ten times more, according to Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister.
Andrij Melnyk, who was Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, said in an interview with RBC-Ukraine that Germany "needs to do more than others – not one, but one and a half or two percent" of its GDP spent on Ukraine’s military aid.
He noted that Ukraine "would like to see important words put into practice."
"For example, such assistance [from Germany to Ukraine] should amount to 1% of GDP annually. Thus, we could expect German support to be at least €38 billion a year. This would more or less meet our real needs at the front," Mr Melnyk said.
Such level of support, Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister notes, should be "non-stop until the victory, and not because we are such poor and miserable victims, but because it is in the national interest of Germany itself and other partners."
According to Mr Melnyk, there is a certain risk of the West pressuring Ukraine into negotiating with Russia when it "can say: 'Well, we gave you everything we could, and you still can't organise the counter-offensive'"
"I would really like them [the West] to explain this: we guarantee that the Armed Forces of Ukraine have no restrictions on ammunition, that we will go out of our way to do everything, but you will have the shells," he concluded.
Earlier, it was reported the European Union’s plan for Ukraine's ammunition had stalled over a dispute on which arms manufacturers to be chosen.
