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CHIȘINĂU — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz defended his country’s aid to Ukraine on Wednesday, after his government came under fire for cutting funds in a savings push.
“Germany will not let up in its support for Ukraine. We will continue to support Ukraine for as long as necessary. And we will be Ukraine’s biggest national supporter in Europe,” Scholz said during a joint press conference with Moldovan President Maia Sandu in Chişinǎu, the nation’s capital.
Over the weekend, German newspaper FAZ reported that Germany’s three-way ruling coalition — made up of Scholz’ Social Democratic Party, the Greens and the pro-business Free Democratic Party — would halt new military aid to Ukraine as part of its plan to reduce spending.
That followed a decision by the coalition partners in July to cut military aid to Ukraine by almost half to just €4 billion in its draft budget for 2025, arguing Kyiv could in future rely on anticipated income from frozen Russian assets worth $50 billion.
But it remains unclear when that money will be available.
“This is technically demanding, but we’re politically united,” Scholz said in reference to using the Russian assets frozen in Europe to support Ukraine. “And we are currently clarifying these technical issues, so that considerable increase in support for Ukraine by the international community will be guaranteed.”
Germany is Ukraine’s biggest European supplier of military aid, but internal squabbling over the draft budget for 2025 has led Berlin to firm up its military aid plans for the coming year.
When asked about Ukraine’s ongoing offensive inside Russia, Scholz — who has sought to walk a fine line in touting Germany’s robust military support for Kyiv while depicting himself to his Social Democratic Party base as a “peace chancellor” — said Ukraine had prepared its military operation in the Kursk region “very secretly,” while adding that “this is a very limited operation in terms of space and probably also in terms of time.”
Speaking in Moldova, which has sounded the alarm over Russian efforts to destabilize the country and met the requirements for starting negotiations to join the EU in June, Scholz said Germany had offered help with all the legislative and administrative requirements in order to move forward quickly with membership.
“The enlargement of the European Union is in the strategic interest of the Union as a whole. It is in the strategic interest of Germany and, of course, Moldova.”
In a high-spirited appearance, Scholz also briefly addressed Moldovan soldiers in Romanian, the national language.
