At the insistence of Ukraine and many NATO partners, the German government is giving up its refusal to supply arms to Ukraine.

Kiev is to receive 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 “Stinger” surface-to-air missiles from the Bundeswehr stocks.

The weapons would be "delivered to Ukraine as soon as possible," according to a statement by the federal government on Saturday evening.

Konrad Schuller

Political correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper in Berlin.

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Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) said: "The Russian attack on Ukraine marks a turning point.

It threatens our entire post-war order.

In this situation, it is our duty to do our best to help Ukraine defend itself against Vladimir Putin's invading army.

Germany stands close to Ukraine.”

As the FAZ learned, on Saturday Berlin had already given other countries permission to deliver weapons originally from Germany to Ukraine.

The delivery of 400 German-made rocket-propelled grenades was approved by the Netherlands.

In addition, Estonia received the long-awaited permission from Berlin to supply the Ukraine with self-propelled howitzers, which still come from the stocks of the National People's Army of the GDR.

The Federal Republic had initially sold the howitzers to Finland in the 1990s.

The federal government had already confirmed in January that there was a request from Estonia that was being examined.

"Need a targeted and functional restriction of SWIFT"

The export of 14 special armored vehicles for Ukraine was also approved on Saturday.

The vehicles are used for personal protection, if necessary also for evacuation purposes.

They are to be handed over to Ukrainian authorities.

In addition, according to FAZ information, up to 10,000 tons of fuel are to be delivered to Ukraine via Poland.

The procedure was coordinated on Saturday between the Federal Chancellery, the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Defense.

Even before Chancellor Scholz made his statement, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck (both Green) had explained the Federal Government's change of course: "After Russia's shameless attack, Ukraine must be able to defend itself.

She has an inalienable right to self-defense.”

Baerbock and Habeck also said that Berlin was reconsidering its opposition to Russia being excluded from the SWIFT financial service, without which most international financial transactions are hardly possible.

They said: “At the same time, we are working flat out on how to limit the collateral damage of decoupling from SWIFT so that it affects the right people.

What we need is a targeted and functional restriction of SWIFT.” The Chancellor's statement initially contained no information about a new course at SWIFT.