Scholz promises Ukraine more military support, including Patriot as an option
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz today reaffirmed his country's commitment to provide Ukraine with full support for as long as necessary, including the option of the Patriot defence systems that Kiev has been demanding. "We will continue to support Ukraine with extensive arms deliveries, in coordination with our partners," he said in his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, adding that this includes "defensive systems such as IRIS-T or Patriot".
Germany is under strong pressure from several of its allies to provide Kiev with Leopard tanks, having already supplied Gepard tanks and committed to sending Marder tanks, while on Monday it began shipping three Patriot batteries to neighbouring Poland.
In his speech to the Forum, Scholz recalled that his country's contribution to aid to Ukraine has now reached 12 billion euros and insisted that its commitment to the defence of that country against Russian aggression will be maintained "as long as necessary". Expressing his condolences for today's tragedy in the Kiev region when the helicopter carrying Interior Minister Denis Monastyrsky crashed, Scholz said that "the impact of Russia's war has hit all of us".
The war has forced the world to "adapt to new geopolitical realities" and has placed it before a "sword of Damocles", in which the danger was to fall into a new fragmentation, de-globalisation and decoupling". "Russia has failed in all its goals", he continued, and Germany has moved "within a few months" towards the goal of full energy independence from Russian gas, oil and coal.
Scholz's speech in Davos precedes next Friday's NATO ministerial meeting at the US base in Ramstein, Germany, which will focus on military support for Russia. The German leader discussed the issue last night in a conversation with US President Joe Biden, while US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin is expected to visit Berlin tomorrow.
The Ramstein meeting will be attended by Germany's new Defence Minister, Boris Pistorius, who will be sworn in tomorrow and take over from Christine Lambrecht, who resigned on Monday after being strongly questioned over her performance, particularly in relation to support for Ukraine.
Defence is a key ministry for Scholz, who just days after the invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022 announced before the Bundestag a 100 billion euro investment package to bring the army up to speed after decades of budget cuts. At the same time he announced the start of arms deliveries to Ukraine, breaking with the line taken by successive German federal governments not to send weapons to conflict regions.
