With its refusal to deliver heavy weapons systems to Ukraine, the German government has attracted a lot of criticism internationally.

But it's not just about military equipment.

Given the atrocities committed by the Russian army, parts of the public and some partners are finding it increasingly difficult to understand why Germany is vehemently opposed to an embargo on Russian energy supplies.

But Germany could also do more with other aids, criticized Alexander Rodnyansky, economic policy adviser to the Ukrainian President Selenskyj, on Deutschlandfunk on Friday.

His country is grateful for the financial aid, but one still wonders why Germany, measured in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), is helping less than Latvia, for example.

Svea Junge

Editor in Business.

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Henrik Kafsack

Business correspondent in Brussels.

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Winand von Petersdorff-Campen

Economic correspondent in Washington.

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An evaluation by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) shows that there is definitely something to it.

In the first four weeks of the war (February 24 to March 27), Germany pledged humanitarian, financial and military aid worth 492 million euros.

This corresponds to less than 0.1 percent of Germany's economic power.

Compared to the other 31 EU and G-7 countries covered by the "Ukraine Support Tracker", Germany comes in twelfth place.

America, the world's largest economy, ranks sixth in terms of GDP.

At the same time, the USA provided EUR 7.6 billion in aid, more than all EU countries put together: EUR 2.9 billion in bilateral aid.

There is also help from the EU institutions and the European Investment Bank.

But even with that, the EU countries are lagging behind America.

Christoph Trebesch, research director of the IfW and responsible for the "Ukraine Support Tracker", told the FAZ that he had expected significantly higher amounts from the EU because there was a lot at stake for Europe.

Compared to other European crises of the past 20 years, the aid has so far been small.

"In some cases, funds for individual countries and crisis situations were mobilized a hundred times as much," said Trebesch.

In April, the European governments - including the German one - nonetheless pledged further aid.

But the USA has also made further commitments.

More money for help in this country

Germany is likely to move up the rankings with the new aid, but that doesn't change the fact "that the German government has mobilized far less for Ukraine than for cushioning the consequences of the war in Germany itself," said Trebesch.

Including the new announcements and its share of EU aid, the government has pledged a total of around 4 billion euros since the beginning of the war.

If you go back to 2014, that would add another 2 billion euros, he calculates.

But the energy relief package decided at the end of March alone will cost up to 17 billion euros.

"Since the beginning of the war, the government has raised four times as much money for the "tank discount" in Germany alone than for the Ukraine," says Trebesch.

In addition, there would be up to 100 billion euros in loans and up to 5 billion in grants for energy-intensive companies.

This makes it clear where the government is setting its priorities.

"All in all, probably more money is currently flowing from Germany into the Russian state budget than into the Ukrainian one, because there is no energy embargo and the aid for Ukraine is small compared to the payments for oil and gas."