Patriot missiles, Leopard tanks, and helicopters: Ukraine's aid from Germany during war
Archive photo: Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Olaf Scholz (Vitalii Nosach, RBC-Ukraine
Germany is one of the largest providers of aid to Ukraine and has already delivered dozens of Leopard tanks, artillery systems, and air defense systems. At the same time, Berlin has repeatedly helped Kyiv by supplying energy and humanitarian equipment.
RBC-Ukraine's material describes the assistance Ukraine has received from Germany during the large-scale war.
Sources: statements by former and current German officials, the head of the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine, Herman Halushchenko, the German Embassy in Ukraine, and the German government's website.
Contents:
Arms supplies
Prior to the large-scale invasion, Germany had ruled out supplying lethal aid to Ukraine, but its position changed dramatically after February 24, 2022. Initially, Berlin sanctioned other countries to provide arms to Ukraine, then began to form its packages of lethal assistance.
Initially, they included small arms and man-portable air defense systems but after a month and a half of war, former Defense Minister Christina Lambrecht decided to transfer Gepard anti-aircraft systems to Kyiv, which can effectively fight enemy drones and cruise missiles.
Subsequently, Germany decided to transfer a small batch of PzH 2000 self-propelled artillery systems to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which have proven to be very effective on the battlefield due to their precision.
In the early summer of 2022, Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that his country would provide Kyiv with a modern IRIS-T air defense system that can destroy enemy cruise missiles and aircraft. The assistance was extremely important, as Ukraine had only Soviet air defense systems and their number was insufficient. Subsequently, Ukraine began receiving M113 and Dingo ATF armored personnel carriers and M270 multiple-launch rocket systems from Germany.
In January last year, Scholz announced the first delivery to Ukraine of the Patriot air defense system, which can shoot down Russian ballistic missiles, as well as a batch of Marder infantry fighting vehicles. Ukraine needed the latter during the summer counteroffensive, and the vehicles were used in attacks on Russian positions in the Zaporizhzhia region. Now the Ukrainian armed forces use Marder in the Avdiivka direction in the Donetsk region.
After a while, Berlin approved the supply of modern Leopard 2 tanks to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. They were also used during the offensive in the Zaporizhzhia region. In February 2023, Berlin agreed to supply Kyiv with almost 180 modernized Leopard 1 tanks. While these combat vehicles have weaker armor than Leopard 2, they were still used by Ukrainian troops in the Kupiansk direction in the Kharkiv region.
Later, the CEO of the German concern Rheinmetall, Armin Papperger, said that Ukraine had received a modern Skynex self-propelled anti-aircraft system from his company. This system is very effective in destroying Russian kamikaze drones.
This year, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that his country would provide Ukraine with Sea King Mk41 multi-purpose military helicopters for the first time. In April, the German government decided to supply Kyiv with another Patriot air defense system. This is the third system from Berlin.
In addition, Germany regularly supplies Ukraine with artillery ammunition, the production of which continues to increase, air defense missiles, various drones, bridge pavers, helmets, small arms, trucks, grenade launchers, and much more.
The German government reports that about 5 billion euros have already been spent on military aid to Ukraine in 2023 and 1.6 billion euros in 2022. Another 2.9 billion euros were allocated in the first two years of the war for supplies that will arrive in Ukraine between 2025 and 2028. In addition, more than 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers have received military training in Germany. For this year, Germany has allocated more than 7 billion euros in military aid to Ukraine.
Energy and humanitarian support
Germany has been helping Ukraine not only with weapons but since the first year of the war, it has also been supporting the energy sector. In the summer of 2022, former German Ambassador to Ukraine Anka Feldhusen announced that Berlin would provide financial assistance to support the Ukrainian energy sector. The funds were used to repair the power grids damaged as a result of the Russian invasion.
In early 2023, when Russia was in the midst of large-scale attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine informed that it had received almost 334 tons of equipment from Germany to restore the energy infrastructure, including 40 transformers from Stromnetz Berlin GmbH. At the end of 2023, the German government prepared another winter aid package worth almost €90 million. It also included repair equipment, transformers, and generators.
In April of this year, the German Embassy in Ukraine reported that 400 generators had been supplied to Ukraine, and the head of the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine, Herman Halushchenko, said that Germany could give Ukraine equipment from disused thermal power plants.
Photo: Aid from Germany (twitter.com/THWLeitung)
At the same time, Berlin supports Kyiv in the humanitarian sphere. Germany donates money to various charitable foundations that distribute food aid to the needy in Ukraine. Berlin also donated construction equipment to Kyiv, including transporters, mini-excavators, wheelbarrows, concrete mixers, and tools. Ukraine has also received a batch of ambulances, which were delivered by the World Health Organization with the support of the German government.
