Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) is under pressure in the debate about arms deliveries to Ukraine.

On Monday, the opposition CSU chairman Markus Söder called for her resignation.

There was also criticism from the traffic light coalition.

Green Party leader Omid Nouripour is dissatisfied with the state of arms aid, although without naming Lambrecht.

Johannes Leithauser

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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There are several reasons for dissatisfaction with German arms aid.

First, there is the Minister of Defense herself, who is at least unhappily communicating, perhaps even acting.

Before the Russian troops invaded Ukraine, she had set an unhappy tone when she proudly announced the delivery of 5,000 protective helmets.

Kyiv had requested these pieces of equipment.

But Lambrecht's announcement, which was supposed to be proof of Germany's unbreakable solidarity with Ukraine, seemed hollow and out of place in a situation in which other western countries were already putting together much more substantial armaments aid packages.

In addition, German military assistance to Ukraine is very secretive.

This causes all kinds of criticism and comments.

Lambrecht always justifies the vague information about armaments aid with two arguments.

Firstly, more specific information endangered the safety of the transporters during the delivery of the weapons, which previously included primarily bazookas and anti-aircraft missiles.

Secondly, Ukraine itself has asked to keep the equipment supplied as quiet as possible, so as not to provide the Russian aggressors with information about the arsenal of Ukrainian defenders.

This restraint now also extends to weapons, ammunition stocks and military equipment that have been delivered for a long time.

A list of the deliveries does exist, but according to information from the Ministry of Defence, it is only made available to members of parliament for inspection at the Secret Protection Office of the Bundestag.

It is said that these restrictions were ordered at the request of the Federal Chancellery.

This is uncomfortable for the German defense minister.

Because other states are far less discreet about their military aid.

The United States and Great Britain are open about their offers of aid, and many European countries are also open about military exports to Kyiv.

Only a few countries, such as France, are as cautious as Germany.

There are hardly any differences between the deliveries of the western states, which are more willing to provide information and those which are more reserved.

In both cases, this includes bazookas and anti-aircraft missiles, rifles and ammunition, protective vests and helmets.

Attempts to justify it by tonnage

German discretion hinders all efforts to get out of the constant position of justification against a wide range of criticism in which the defense minister and her house have gotten themselves into.

A few days ago, Lambrecht boldly said that Germany had meanwhile become Ukraine's second-largest arms supplier.

However, since she did not provide any details, her house then had to provide explanations.

Such a ranking is always not very clear, it was said, depending on which criteria are applied, such as the value of the goods delivered - or their weight.

The German top position resulted from the tonnage, not from the prices of the delivered equipment.