German Foreign Minister Calls for Ukraine to Boost Arms Procurement from Germany
\nGermany Urges Ukraine to Increase Defense Orders Amid Rising Tensions<\/p>\n
German Expectations for Defense Procurement<\/p>\n
BERLIN, Sept 8 (Reuters) – German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told Bild newspaper on Tuesday that Ukraine should buy more weapons from German companies, saying Berlin’s position as Kyiv’s biggest donor meant it had the right to expect orders for its defence companies.<\/p>\n
Wadephul said he had assured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy during a visit last month that Germany would continue to support Ukraine in its defence against Russia.<\/p>\n
Justifying Support to German Taxpayers<\/p>\n
“But I also have to explain this to German taxpayers, and the very least you can do is to ensure that the German defence industry is involved in all procurement activities,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.<\/p>\n
“At the moment, we’re not entirely satisfied with the level of orders we’re receiving in Germany,” he said.<\/p>\n
Recent Tensions Between Germany and Russia
\nDrone Attack Accusations<\/p>\n
Wadephul’s comments came days after Germany accused Russia of being behind an attempted drone attack on Leipzig\/Halle airport in August that authorities said only just missed causing a major disaster.<\/p>\n
Diplomatic Fallout<\/p>\n
The accusation, denied by Russia, has added to tensions between Moscow and Berlin, which ordered the closure of the Russian consulate in Bonn and a Russian cultural centre in Berlin in response.<\/p>\n
Russian Response and German Rebuttal<\/p>\n
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted by the state news agency \u200bTASS as saying the German accusations were “by and large, the start of \u2060a real war.”<\/p>\n
Wadephul dismissed Lavrov’s comments and said Germany had no choice but to respond to the incident. “We had to react. He knows that; it’s clear to everyone,” he said.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian Men in Germany<\/p>\n
Wadephul also said that Ukrainian men of military age who were currently in Germany should return home, and he said Berlin could help the Ukrainian government identify them. <\/p>\n
Identifying Ukrainian Nationals<\/p>\n
“We do, after all, know who lives here, who, for example, receives social security benefits or who is registered here, and who has residence status,” he said.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by James MackenzieEditing by Bill Berkrot)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"German Foreign Minister Calls for Ukraine to Boost Arms Procurement from Germany Germany Urges Ukraine to Increase Defense…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}