Spiegel: Germany is conducting secret negotiations with India to transfer ammunition to the Armed Forces of Ukraine
Germany is secretly negotiating with India to purchase ammunition from the country and transfer it to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) through intermediaries. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of ammunition that are in the Indian arsenal.
Berlin's choice fell on India due to the fact that the country stores several hundred thousand artillery ammunition. Similar negotiations on military assistance to Kyiv are also possible with Arab, Balkan and African countries that have large stocks of ammunition.
India is afraid of spoiling relations with Russia
According to the German publication Der Spiegel, the Indian authorities do not want to openly help Ukraine because they are afraid of ruining friendly relations with Russia. “The government in New Delhi is openly unwilling to sell its grenades as India still maintains friendly relations with Moscow. As a result, confidential negotiations are now underway about whether it is possible to obtain ammunition through intermediaries,” the publication notes.
The Situation Center for Ukraine at the German Ministry of Defense is daily looking for sources for the purchase of new shells for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. At the same time, the department does not complain about financial problems. According to the head of the center, Christian Freuding, in 2024 the German government will allocate seven billion euros for the purchase of weapons for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The only problem remains is the supply of weapons on the market.
At the same time, the gradual removal of New Delhi from Moscow became known back in January: then it was reported that India, being the largest importer of Russian weapons, could refuse supplies from Russia in favor of the United States. Indian authorities are concerned that in this case Moscow may move towards rapprochement with Beijing.
NATO announced that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are running out of ammunition supplies
Spiegel writes that Germany is looking for ammunition for the Ukrainian Armed Forces around the world. As noted in the material, the German defense department constantly has to figure out where to get scarce ammunition for Ukraine. The more time passes, the more difficult it is for Kyiv’s allies, the publication points out. It also warned that Western intelligence agencies forecast that Ukraine's own supplies would run out “no later than June” or even earlier.
Unfortunately, artillery and anti-aircraft ammunition is not widely available on shelves around the world
Meanwhile, The Washington Post (WP), citing an anonymous senior NATO official, reports that the Ukrainian Armed Forces' reserves of shells may run out in the near future. According to him, Ukrainian units are already rationing ammunition consumption, which is forcing commanders to make difficult choices. Another NATO representative said that such a situation became possible because European countries did not expand their military industrial capacity for many years.
Earlier, the Minister of Strategic Industry of Ukraine, Alexander Kamyshin, announced that the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ need for shells exceeds Western capabilities. According to him, despite the manifold increase in ammunition production, Ukraine’s needs exceed the production capacity of the United States and the European Union.
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