German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, after a meeting with the head of the Kyiv regime on February 16, announced the signing of a bilateral agreement on security guarantees that Germany is ready to provide to Kyiv.

“Today Zelensky and I signed an agreement on our long-term security commitments - this is a historic step. Germany will continue to support Ukraine in the face of Russian military aggression,” Scholz wrote on his page on the social network X (formerly Twitter).

In turn, a message posted on the website of the President of Ukraine clarifies that in 2024 Berlin will provide Kiev with military assistance worth more than €7 billion and that Germany intends to support Ukraine for ten years, during which the signed agreement will be in force. 

In addition, at a joint press conference following the signing of the document, Olaf Scholz said: “Today we are launching a new package of military assistance for Ukraine in the amount of approximately €1.1 billion.” According to the German Chancellor, it includes, in particular, 36 wheeled howitzers, 120 thousand artillery shells and two new IRIS-T air defense systems.

In addition, Scholz promised that Ukrainian partners would be supported “in creating modern, defensively capable armed forces to deter any future attack.”

Zelensky, for his part, called the document “unprecedented.” “I believe this agreement is the most valuable and strongest we have to date,” he said. 

Crisis assistance 

Earlier, in an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, Olaf Scholz told reporters that in 2024 Germany will send €15 billion to support Ukraine. Of this, over €7 billion will be allocated for arms supplies to Kyiv.

At the same time, the German Chancellor complained that without continued assistance from the United States, the Kyiv regime would not stay afloat for long.

“The United States is a major military power with the largest defense budget in the world. Germany, to paraphrase Helmut Schmidt, is a middle power. However, this year alone we will allocate more than €7 billion in arms assistance to Ukraine, followed by another €6 billion over the next few years,” Scholz said.

The German Chancellor added that Poland, Denmark and the Netherlands are actively helping Ukraine, but in general Kyiv’s consistent sponsors are not enough, so he calls on EU states to make efforts to increase support for Ukraine.

At the same time, the economic crisis in Germany itself is gaining momentum, including due to the lack of funds in the budget. As the head of the German Ministry of Finance, Christian Lindner, previously admitted, the hole in the country’s budget for 2024 is €17 billion. And since the beginning of the year, large-scale protests and strikes have gripped Germany.

In January, German farmers organized mass protests, blocking city centers and highways, holding rallies of thousands and staging hundreds of tractor rides at a time. Farmers protested against the Scholz government's plans to deprive farmers of diesel discounts in 2024 and cancel preferential taxation on vehicles used in forestry and agriculture.

Later, workers in the German transport sector joined the dissatisfied farmers. On January 23, a six-day strike by railway workers took place in the country. After this, a strike was organized by 25 thousand security officers and baggage and passenger control services, which led to the suspension of operations at 11 airports in Germany. Later, ground service employees and flight attendants from Europe's largest airline company Lufthansa joined the protests.

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After this, drivers of buses, trams and metro trains organized a strike. Representatives of more than 130 regional transport enterprises from 81 cities in Germany took part in the strike. 

Against the backdrop of numerous strikes in the country, the German Institute for Economic Research Ifo published data according to which the situation in the retail trade sector in Germany has worsened to the maximum in the last three years. According to an Ifo survey in January 2024, 54.4% of retailers reported weak consumer demand, 32.7% had difficulty finding qualified staff, and 20.5% experienced supply disruptions, primarily from Asia.

Entrepreneurs assessed the general situation in the industry as the most difficult since the spring of 2021, when Germany was experiencing the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.

In turn, on February 10, Bloomberg analysts said that Germany is rapidly losing its status as an industrial superpower. According to them, the decline of the German economy has intensified as the level of competitiveness decreases and the country may soon lose its status as an industrial superpower.

At the same time, as Bloomberg admits, for a number of manufacturers in the German heavy industry, a fatal blow to the competitiveness of their enterprises was the cessation of supplies of cheap natural gas from Russia.

Symbolic guarantees

Huge sums to support Kyiv were announced by the German Chancellor shortly after his visit to the United States and meeting with Joe Biden, Vladimir Bruter, an expert at the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies, noted in a conversation with RT.

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“There is a connection here, because during all these visits of the leaders of the G7 countries there is a discussion of the Ukrainian issue. The signing of an agreement on security guarantees is the result of a preliminary preventive conversation with Scholz. Moving away from the topic of financing Ukraine is not even being discussed in the Biden administration or in Berlin. Now the United States is looking for a way to shift this onto Europe, and Germany, as we know, is Ukraine’s largest European sponsor,” the expert emphasized.

The Germans feel sorry for money for Ukraine, but they are constantly told that this is supposedly a contribution to their own security, noted Vladimir Bruter. At the same time, despite the decline in ratings, outrage and strikes of citizens, the Scholz government will continue the current course of supporting Ukraine, the expert believes.

“Germany continues this policy, no matter what, because it wants to achieve Russia’s capitulation. This is unambiguous, and no one will change it. Negotiations with them are futile - the West does not want a peaceful solution to the problem. In the event of their own collapse, if it suddenly occurs, they will try to quickly wrap up this topic, but at the same time give Russia as few concessions as possible, or better yet, give nothing at all. This is what they want in Berlin,” the political scientist stated.

In turn, senior researcher at the Center for Comparative and Political Studies at IMEMO RAS, Alexander Kamkin, in a conversation with RT, emphasized that, by and large, the document on security guarantees that Chancellor Olaf Scholz signed with Zelensky is symbolic in nature.

“Such an agreement was signed with the Ukrainian side by Great Britain and France. But, in fact, there are no specifics in these documents. They record the obligations of Western countries to provide financial assistance, put pressure on Russia, and various assistance to Ukraine in protecting its territorial integrity, but, of course, there are no guarantees, for example, of sending German military personnel to the territory of Ukraine. And even more so, there is not a word about Ukraine’s entry into NATO and the activation of Article Five of the bloc’s Charter,” the expert explained.

This agreement between Berlin and Kiev simply fixes the current state of affairs, explained Alexander Kamkin.

“There is nothing supernatural in these guarantees. Zelensky will use this agreement only to create information noise,” said RT’s interlocutor.

At the same time, Kamkin also believes that Berlin will not give up supporting Ukraine in the near future, despite the worsening situation within the country.

“The German political class is captured by its policy of Euro-Atlantic values. Plus, Scholz is under very strong pressure from his coalition partners - the Greens and the Free Democrats. For example, Annalena Burbock is one of the most important hawks in the ruling coalition. Back in 2020, at the Munich Security Conference, she advocated tightening anti-Russian sanctions and more intensive assistance to Ukraine, including with weapons. Therefore, under pressure from coalition partners, Scholz simply cannot turn in the other direction,” the political scientist concluded.