After indications of a further increase in Russian troops on the border with Ukraine and the associated fears of an attack, several German politicians spoke out in favor of supplying arms to Ukraine on Wednesday.

In addition to the future FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai, the Chair of the Defense Committee in the Bundestag, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP), was open to the delivery of "defensive weapons".

These could be "a way to support Ukraine," she told the T-Online portal.

The coalition agreement between the SPD, Greens and FDP stipulates that no weapons will be delivered to crisis areas.

But "in view of the current situation and the impact on our continent, we should reconsider this in a specific case".

Lorenz Hemicker

Editor in Politics

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The two FDP politicians from the Union faction in the Bundestag received support.

"It is a mistake by the government to prematurely rule out measures that prevent a complete escalation," said defense policy spokesman Florian Hahn (CSU) of the FAZ. "I therefore think that deliveries of weapons for self-defense are absolutely conceivable."

“What has been said still stands”

The German government reiterated its negative stance on Tuesday in view of the British decision to supply arms to Ukraine.

“The German federal government has been pursuing a similar strategy on this issue for many years.

And that also means that we don't export lethal weapons," said Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD).

The candidate for the Green Party presidency, Omid Nouripour, again rejected arms deliveries to Ukraine on Wednesday. "What has been said, lethal weapons are out of the question, still applies," the foreign policy expert told the news channel of the newspaper Die Welt. However, despite this, there seems to be a new need for discussion among the Greens after the Green co-chairman and current Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck was unable to assert himself last year with his open attitude towards arms deliveries to Ukraine. Party circles said on Wednesday that they were in a "strange position" given the situation on the Ukrainian border.

There is also a need for discussion in the FDP. While Djir-Sarai and Strack-Zimmermann favor weapons deliveries for defense, the deputy FDP parliamentary group leader Alexander Graf Lambsdorff only advocated "non-kinetic equipment". He pointed out that supplying arms to Ukraine was legally impossible. "The War Weapons Control Act and the Foreign Trade Ordinance prohibit the delivery of weapons to areas of tension, crisis areas, war zones." It is also not clear whether Ukraine is dependent on equipment aid.

The government in Kiev renewed its request for arms deliveries from Germany on Wednesday.

The Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin named concrete weapon systems that his country is hoping for.

Ukraine is primarily concerned with warships for coastal defense in the Black and Azov Seas, said Andriy Melnyk, as well as air defense systems from German armaments companies.