The parliamentary groups of the traffic light coalition will put a ten-page motion for "comprehensive support for Ukraine" to the vote in the Bundestag on Thursday in order to avoid pressure from the Union opposition, which had announced its own motion with the request to deliver large quantities of heavy military equipment to Ukraine quickly.

Johannes Leithauser

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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The CDU/CSU came up with the plan for their application after the FDP defense politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, the Greens European politician Anton Hofreiter and other parliamentarians from the coalition parties had expressed their dissatisfaction with the previous military support of the federal government for Ukraine.

The calculation was to reveal differences of opinion within the coalition majority in this way.

The coalition motion, which was formulated by the foreign politicians of the three coalition partners in consultation with the chancellor's office, now also contains a statement on the issue of arms deliveries to Ukraine.

On page six it says that the Bundestag should call on the federal government to "continue and, where possible, accelerate the delivery of necessary equipment to Ukraine and at the same time expand the delivery of heavy weapons and complex systems, for example as part of the ring exchange, without Germany's capabilities to to endanger the defense of the alliance".

The SPD, Greens and FDP are now being asked to “check whether further weapons can be handed over and to actively approach other countries to offer them a ring exchange”.

In order to strengthen NATO's deterrent effect, the Federal Government is also asked to

Military aid, support for refugees, sanctions against Russia

All in all, the joint application by the government factions contains 41 recommendations or requests to the federal government to support Ukraine in repelling the Russian attack.

The first demand states that if a ceasefire or peace agreement is concluded, “Germany, together with the USA, Canada and other NATO and EU partners, must be ready to actively contribute to ensuring that it is observed”.

This wording refers to the "security guarantees" requested by Ukraine from Western countries in order to be protected against future Russian aggression.

According to the traffic light factions, an “active contribution” could consist of various forms of military aid, but obviously this does not mean a guarantee of assistance along the lines of the mutual NATO obligation to provide assistance.

The calls for military help are followed in the coalition motion by numerous calls for help for Ukrainian refugees and for further sanctions against Russia.

These include, for example, the appeal to work “at the European level to stop the import of uranium and other raw materials from Russia and Belarus”, but also the request to put pressure on the People’s Republic of China “to give up its approval of the war and instead Armistice efforts actively supported”.

"Personal sanctions" for arms deliveries to Russia

This should be combined with the threat "that any attempt to circumvent the sanctions imposed on Russia by the western community of states or even to supply weapons to Russia will result in economic and personal sanctions".

The three government factions also make it clear in their formulations that they see the limitation of all German support in the fact that Germany and NATO as a whole do not want to become involved in the military conflict with Russia.

It says that the Bundestag welcomes the German government's support "for the attacked Ukraine, while at the same time ensuring that neither Germany nor NATO become a party to the war".