BERLIN, April 22. /TASS/. The German army will have problems with supplying any military hardware to Ukraine from its own reserves, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told Der Spiegel magazine in an interview, published on Friday.
"The opportunities for supplying anything from Bundeswehr’s own reserves have been exhausted by and large," he said.
Also, he stressed that Germany was well aware of its commitments to NATO to be able to defend the territory of the alliance at any moment.
"This is a difficult decision for us and our partners to make. A threat to NATO’s territory from Russia remains. We keep hearing this from our Baltic partners, who have been asking for a greater presence of the Bundeswehr," Scholz added.
On Thursday, Germany’s Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said that Germany was unable to supply heavy weapons to Ukraine from the Bundeswehr’s own reserves. She argued that for that reason it was necessary to set up what she described as "circular exchange" with the EU and NATO states, which would mean that other countries would supply arms for which Berlin would later compensate. She also suggested that Soviet-made weapons including tanks and infantry fighting vehicles could be provided.