After the West promised to supply main battle tanks to Ukraine, Kyiv is now demanding fighter jets and long-range missiles. The news ticker.
- After Leopard promise: Zelenskyj demands delivery of fighter jets and long-range missiles for defense against Russia
- Government survey: Scholz rejects delivery of fighter planes to the Ukraine so far
- Survey: In Germany, support for arms deliveries is crumbling Ukraine conflict
Update from Monday, January 30, 1:20 p.m.: Poland wants to significantly increase its defense spending in view of the Ukraine war. This was announced by Prime Minister Morawiecki on Monday. In an “unprecedented” step, Warsaw will spend four percent of gross domestic product “on the Polish army” this year. The war in Ukraine is making Poland’s arms advance “even faster,” he said. According to NATO data, Poland spent more than 2.4 percent of its GDP on defense last year. The country was thus in third place within the alliance. As Ukraine’s direct neighbor, Poland has repeatedly advocated the delivery of heavy weapons to the country at war.
First report from Monday, January 30, 10:54 a.m.: Berlin/Kyiv – It was the same video speech in which Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the West for the decision to supply main battle tanks and immediately asked for long-range missiles and fighter jets. The debate in Germany also immediately developed in this direction, with Olaf Scholz (SPD) now found clear words. Meanwhile, support for arms deliveries to Ukraine is falling among the population.
Weapons deliveries to Ukraine: Scholz does not want to deliver fighter jets
Scholz has so far ruled out the delivery of fighter jets to Ukraine to defend against Russia. “I made it clear very early on that it’s not about combat aircraft and I’m doing the same here,” said the Chancellor during a government survey on Wednesday (January 25). Also Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (CDU) and the chairwoman of the defense committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP), one of the strongest advocates in the battle tank debate, rejected fighter jet deliveries.
Weapons in the Ukraine war: Scholz criticizes the debate about fighter jets
Nevertheless, there are also people in Germany who are less opposed to the delivery of fighter jets and long-range missiles. The CDU foreign policy expert Jürgen Hardt warned the federal government in an interview with the newspapers Funk media group against drawing red lines on the supply of arms to Ukraine. However, clear words came from the head of the Munich Security Conference, Christoph Heusgen. “I believe that the supply of fighter jets is adequate to better protect Ukraine from Russian attacks,” he said on Sunday Europe Magazine the ARD.
Scholz responded with criticism to such demands in the weapons debate. The chancellor accused the people behind it of “domestic political motives” and spoke of an “outbidding competition”. Calls for heavier arms deliveries are also finding less and less support among the German population. 48 percent of respondents to a study by the market and opinion institute Ipsos stated that they were against the provision of weapons for the Ukrainian military. In April 2022 it was still 55 percent. (vbu with dpa/AFP)
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