BERLIN — Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday defended his government’s track record in supplying heavy weapons to Ukraine to German lawmakers, promising two more potentially significant donations: an air defense system and a tracking radar to help the Ukrainian military identify sources of Russian heavy artillery. localize.
“This is also a decision we have made to ensure the security of Ukraine with state of the art equipment,” said Mr. Scholz during an unusually impassioned speech to the German federal parliament.
The speed and magnitude of arms donations to Ukraine has been a persistent source of criticism for Mr Scholz, both from Ukraine and Germany, even as he spoke of a break with decades of pacifist policies.
Although Mr Scholz said the air defense systems were among the most advanced in the German arsenal and could be deployed to protect entire cities, he did not immediately specify delivery times.
In Wednesday’s parliamentary session, Friedrich Merz, the head of the conservative opposition, denounced the fact that Germany had still not supplied heavy weapons a month after the opposition and government legislators voted not to provide such supplies, and he mocked Mr Scholz for not communicating clearly on the matter.
“You talk a little more than usual, but the fact that you don’t say anything remains unchanged,” said Mr Merz to cheers from his conservative party.
In response, Mr Scholz listed weapons systems the government had previously promised — such as a mobile armored air defense system and a mobile armored howitzer — and said the howitzers would be in Ukraine within weeks.
He also said Germany would provide the German-made IRIS-T air defense system to Ukraine to help defend cities from air strikes. Mr Scholz said the system was the most modern of its kind in Germany’s arsenal.
Mr Scholz also announced a tracking radar that could help the Ukrainian armed forces locate the sources of Russian artillery and howitzers.
In addition, Germany had admitted 168 “mainly seriously injured” Ukrainian soldiers for medical treatment, Mr Scholz said.
Pressure from the German government to show its commitment has also caused political ripples elsewhere in Europe.
On Tuesday, speaking to reporters at the end of a European Union summit in Brussels, Mr Scholz announced that he had reached a deal with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of Greece in which the Greeks would provide Ukraine with Soviet-era BMP-1 infantry combat. vehicles, and Germany would send an equal number of more modern replacements to Greece.
The deal caused some friction on the Greek political scene, not least because it was announced by the German side. The Greek Ministry of Defense confirmed the agreement later in the day, without specifying the number of vehicles involved.
“The Mitsotakis government must stop making secret decisions on crucial national issues,” Greece’s main left-wing opposition party, Syriza, said in a statement on Tuesday.
Greece was one of the first European Union member states to provide aid to Ukraine after the Russian invasion in late February, sending Kalashnikov assault rifles and portable rocket launchers along with other equipment.
Germany signed a similar tank exchange agreement with the Czech Republic last month to allow that country to transfer its stockpiles of Soviet weapons to Ukraine. Last week, however, Polish President Andrzej Duda accused Berlin of forgoing a similar deal to replace tanks sent to Ukraine from Poland.
