The German parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of supplying heavy weapons to Ukraine. With 586 votes in favor, Bundestag deputies approved sending Ukraine heavy weapons such as tanks and air defense systems, Labor.
Germany initially refused to send any offensive weapons to Ukraine, but later avoided sending heavy military equipment such as armored vehicles.
Under pressure from both the country and its allies, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government recently agreed to allow Ukraine to buy German weapons and support arms exchanges with allies, who in turn send heavy weapons to Kyiv.
Berlin plans to give Slovenia armored vehicles to replace Soviet-era tanks it sends to Ukraine, send mortars directly to Kyiv and allow it to purchase stockpiles of self-propelled armored anti-aircraft guns from Germany.
100 deputies from the party of former communists Left and from the far-right “Alternative for Germany” voted against the decision. The proposal was made jointly by the ruling coalition and the HDZ.
German companies have also asked to send 88 Leopard tanks, 100 Marder armored vehicles and 100 howitzers to Ukraine, permission for which has not yet been given.
The government has been backed by the Bundestag for all the steps taken so far – such as sanctions against Russia, assistance in investigating war crimes committed in Ukraine and the rapid restructuring of Germany’s energy infrastructure to break free from Russian dependence.
“The German Bundestag strongly condemns Russia’s brutal attack on Ukraine. “Russia has violated international law and humanitarian rules in an outrageous way,” in a bid to permanently damage European peace, lawmakers said.
#Bundestag agrees for the delivery of heavy #Waffen +++ Majority of the citizens are with Chancellor Scholz in action #UkraineKrieg dissatisfied +++ You can find all developments in our live blog. https://t.co/mIoISotubV
— General-Anzeiger (@gabonn) April 28, 2022
At the same time, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev called “sad” for the German parliament the decision of deputies to approve the supply of heavy weapons to Ukraine.
“The Bundestag has approved the supply of heavy weapons to the regime of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. German lawmakers are apparently being persecuted by the laurels of their predecessors, who sat in the German parliament under a different name last century,” Medvedev wrote in his Telegram.
–
