BERLIN, August 17. /TASS/. Germany will have to limit its military aid to Ukraine because the current budget does not provide any new money for this purpose, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper reported, citing a letter from German Finance Minister Christian Lindner to top defense official Boris Pistorius and top diplomat Annalena Baerbock.

According to the newspaper, this is due to austerity measures by the chancellor's office and the finance ministry. Military equipment that has already been approved will continue to be delivered to Kiev, but additional requests from the Defense Ministry will no longer be supported at the request of Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The newspaper pointed out that the blockage has already taken effect. For Ukraine, the situation is likely to worsen soon, as planned military support is expected to nearly halve next year and fall to less than one-tenth of the current amount in 2027.

However, Finance Minister Christian Lindner does not expect a drastic reduction in funding for Ukraine. In his opinion, in the future, the money will no longer come from the federal budget, but from frozen Russian assets. According to the newspaper, Lindner expects that Ukraine will be able to "cover a significant part of its military needs" with this money. If this is successful, Berlin's financing of Kiev would no longer be necessary for a while. But the decision of the G7 countries is far from being implemented and is legally questionable, the newspaper emphasized.

Aid to Ukraine in question

Funding for aid to Ukraine is planned for the current year (about eight billion euros), and the planned maximum for 2025 (four billion euros) seems to have already exceeded the available funds. For 2026, only three billion euros are planned, and for 2027 and 2028 - 500 million each. Therefore, a source in the German government told the newspaper that they have reached a point where Germany can no longer make any promises to Ukraine.

Germany is the second largest arms supplier to Ukraine after the US. The country has so far allocated funds for military support to Kiev and has committed to future spending of about 28 billion euros. According to the 2025 budget agreement, four billion euros will be allocated for military assistance to Ukraine, half of the current year's allocation. Russian authorities have repeatedly said that pumping weapons into Ukraine will not weaken Russia's resolve and will not change the course of the special military operation.