Germany in €1 billion military aid pledge for Ukraine

The German government said on Friday it plans to send more than €1 billion in military aid to Ukraine, NDTV reported on April 16.

Berlin has decided to increase its international aid in the defence sector “to two billion euros” with “the largest part being planned in the form of military aid in favour of Ukraine”, a government spokeswoman told AFP.

The military aid pledge comes amid complaints by Kyiv that it is not receiving heavy weapons from Berlin.

The funds must be used by Ukraine to mainly finance purchases of military equipment.

Germany´s move follows growing criticism from Ukraine, and some EU partners such as Poland and the Baltic States, of a lack of support in terms of weapons for Kyiv.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been criticised at home for his hesitancy in sending heavy weapons to Ukraine.

Scholz has made a dramatic U-turn on Germany’s defence policy prompted by Russia’s invasion.

The large aid package comes as Russian forces withdrawing from the Kyiv region left behind the bodies of more than 900 slaughtered Ukraine civilians, authorities said on Friday.

The vast majority of the victims in the area surrounding the capital were “simply executed” by gunfire, police said.

Andriy Nebytov, the head of the capital’s regional police force, estimated that 95 per cent of bodies left stranded in the region had been shot.

Nebytov also claimed citizens who had expressed strong pro-Ukrainian views had been hunted down and murdered.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky accused occupying Russian troops in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of carrying out similar atrocities.

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