BERLIN, December 29. /TASS/. Sevim Dagdelen, German lawmaker from the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance - Reason and Justice, has slammed Andrey Melnik, Ukraine’s former ambassador to Berlin and new permanent representative to the UN, for demanding more weapons.
"Fascist admirer Melnyk is becoming increasingly brazen. Now, there are demands for free weapons worth 20 billion [euros] annually," she wrote on the X social media platform.
According to Dagdelen, Friedrich Merz, candidate for the German chancellor from the alliance of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), Economic Minister Robert Habeck and current Chancellor Olaf Scholz "will probably continue to burn German taxpayer money in Ukraine." The lawmaker called for "negotiations instead of an endless war."
In an interview with Germany’s Funke Media Group on December 28, Melnik called on Berlin to increase weapons supplies to Kiev. In his view, Germany’s new government "should allocate at least 80 billion euros in the next four years, that is, 20 billion euros per year." According to the diplomat, "this would be a good investment in Germany’s security."
Germany is the second-largest arms supplier to Ukraine after the United States. Berlin has so far allocated some 28 bln euros in military aid to Kiev and future commitments. In its proposed 2025 budget, the country allocated four billion euros for aid, half the amount it spent this year. The budget is yet to be approved by the Bundestag.
Russia has repeatedly stressed that weapons supplies to Kiev will only prolong the conflict in Ukraine.