Germany has pledged to deliver another €650 million in tanks, air defence systems and other military aid to Kyiv this month and warned China that its “increasing” support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would affect relations between Berlin and Beijing.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Ukraine on Monday for the first time since 2022 and met its president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who has urged Nato to invite his country to join the alliance even if its mutual defence clause did not immediately extend to Russian-occupied territory.
“We appreciate not only the size of this package but also the clear delivery date – December of this year. If all our partners showed such leadership and such timely delivery, we would have already forced Russia to a just peace,” Mr Zelenskiy said.
A German defence ministry spokesman said the aid would include Leopard 1 tanks, drones, advanced Iris-T air-defence systems and specialised winter equipment.
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While being appreciative of German military, financial, humanitarian and diplomatic support, Kyiv has been frustrated by what it calls Berlin’s slow decision-making and Mr Scholz’s refusal to supply powerful Taurus cruise missiles. Ukraine also criticised his call last month to Russian president Vladimir Putin, which critics said achieved nothing, showed weakness and undermined efforts to isolate the Kremlin.
On a visit to Beijing, German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock accused Mr Putin of escalating the war and expanding its reach by supplementing its own forces with North Korean troops, and criticised China for assisting a Russian invasion that its leaders have not publicly condemned.
“The Russian president is not only destroying our European peace order through his war against Ukraine but is now dragging Asia into it via North Korea ... My Chinese counterpart and I have therefore discussed in depth that this cannot be in China’s interest either,” she said after talks with Beijing’s foreign minister Wang Yi.
“Drones from Chinese factories and North Korean troops attacking the peace in the middle of Europe are violating our core European security interests,” she added, after earlier warning that “increasing Chinese support for Russia’s war against Ukraine has an impact on our relations.”
Before a Nato foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday, Mr Zelenskiy urged members again over the weekend to invite Ukraine to join.
“If we want to stop the hot phase of the war, we need to take under the Nato umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control,” he told Sky News. “We need to do it fast. And then on the [occupied] territory of Ukraine, Ukraine can get them back in a diplomatic way.”
Nato has said Ukraine will join one day but has not presented a formal invitation or timeline.
