Ukraine’s main supporter has started to count

Ukraine will not receive any further aid from the German budget beyond what has already been approved.

No additional funds are available for Ukraine’s assistance in the German budget – warned Christian Lindner, the German Finance Minister, to the Defense Ministry. The approved support will be received by the country at war, but further proposals from the Defense Ministry, at the request of Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz, will not be approved – writes the German daily newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The more restrained spending period related to Ukraine has already taken effect in Germany.

Ukraine can still receive additional support if it is financed from the frozen Russian assets as agreed by the G7 following the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war. However, this process, which may last for several months, raises significant legal concerns.

“Russia will hold accountable those involved in the theft of its assets through legal means” – warned Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, a few weeks ago. Such thieving actions cannot go unpunished – quoted Peskov by the Russian news agency TASS.

The decision of the Finance Ministry is already having an impact. For example, a IRIS-T air defense system could not be provided to Ukraine recently because the Finance Ministry refused to approve the amount despite the request of German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.

Further bad news for Ukraine is that Germany would cut its aid by half next year, to around four billion euros, an amount that is practically already used up. Furthermore, the support framework for 2026 would be three billion, and for 2027 and 2028 only half a billion, which is less than one-tenth of the current approximately eight billion euros.