BERLIN, April 20. /TASS/. Germany has supplied Ukraine with a large number of weapons that have not been mentioned publicly, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Wednesday in Riga at a joint press conference with her Latvian counterpart Edgars Rinkevics, which was broadcast on the German Foreign Ministry’s Facebook page (a social media site banned in Russia since it is owned by Meta corporation deemed extremist by Russian authorities).
"We supplied anti-tank missile systems, Stinger [man-portable air defense systems] and other weapons that we never talked about publicly, so these deliveries could happen quickly," Berbok noted.
When asked whether Germany would send Kiev its Panzerhaubitze 2000 artillery system, which some experts believe Ukraine needs, the minister replied that Germany would train Kiev's soldiers to use more advanced systems, which Kiev could receive from other partner countries or buy directly. "If partners supply artillery that we can no longer supply, we will help with training and maintenance," Berbok concluded.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said after a video conference with the leaders of other Western countries on Tuesday that the Bundeswehr’s own reserves that might have been supplied to Ukraine had been exhausted, but Kiev might purchase hardware from the German arms manufacturing concerns and get a compensation in the future. Scholz noted that initially Germany did provide weapons for Ukraine from its own reserves, but these resources were rather limited.
Earlier, German Foreign Minster Annalena Baerbock (of the Green party) said that Kiev needed heavy weapons and this was a wrong moment for presenting lame excuses.
The German government on February 26 approved weapons supplies to Ukraine. Berlin decided to send to Kiev 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 man-portable air defense systems Stinger. Earlier on the same day there were reports that Germany had allowed the Netherlands and Estonia to send to Ukraine old weapons of German manufacture. On March 2, the weapons Berlin had promised to Kiev were reported to have been handed over to Ukraine. On March 14, the German authorities said that in order to avoid redundant risks they had decided against supplying more weapons to Ukraine.
On March 23, the German news agency DPA quoted sources as saying that Berlin was going to hand over to Kiev 2,000 man-portable grenade launchers from the Bundeswehr reserves. On March 25, it was reported that 1,500 air defense systems Strela, 100 MG3 machineguns and 8 million cartridges for firearms had been delivered to Ukraine from Germany. Ukraine is going to purchase 35 armored personnel carriers Marder from Germany’s arms manufacturer Rheinmetall.