www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/22/france-sending-heavy-weapons-significant-equipment-to-ukraine
Although some countries such as the US have been quick to respond, others – notably EU heavyweight Germany – fear further antagonising Moscow by delivering more powerful arms for Ukraine.
“There is no textbook for this situation where you can look up at what point we will be seen as party to the conflict,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz told weekly Der Spiegel on Friday.
But he added Germany would replace Soviet-made weapons sent to Ukraine from eastern NATO and EU allies, including Slovenia, with new German-made ones.
“This is a debate that goes to the heart of Germany’s political life. It’s a sovereign choice that belongs to Germany and we respect it,” Macron was quoted as saying, adding he recently spoke to Scholz.
“We have the same strategy as the chancellor, which is to say that we will aid the Ukrainians as much as possible, but must be careful never to become parties to the conflict.”
Scholz on Friday hit back against accusations his centre-left Social Democrats have been too lenient towards Russia, as critics accuse Berlin of dragging its feet on deliveries of heavy weapons to Ukraine.
Opponents have confronted his Social Democratic Party (SPD) with a “distorted and slanderous depiction” of its Russia policy, Scholz said in an interview with German weekly Spiegel. “That annoys me,” he said, adding the SPD was “bound into the Western and transatlantic alliance”.
Germany has come under fire for refusing to directly send heavy weapons to Ukraine, even as allies such as the US, Britain, Czech Republic, and the Netherlands up their deliveries.
Much of the criticism has been directed at Scholz, who has faced pressure even from his two junior coalition partners to take tougher action.
But the government has said after decades of chronic underinvestment, the German army, called the Bundeswehr, is simply not in a position to send the weapons Ukraine wants.
The potential to send arms to Ukraine from the stocks of the Bundeswehr had been “largely exhausted”, Scholz said in the interview.
“What is still available will absolutely still be delivered,” Scholz said, naming anti-tank weapons and artillery munitions.