[ad_1]
“This is all pointing more towards financing stalemate rather than financing Ukrainian counteroffensives,” Mr. Trebesch said. “It seems to be more about preserving the status quo than really allowing Ukraine to do something serious, both militarily and financially.”
Analysts say that Germany in particular has fallen short, in spite of its earlier rhetoric.
Markus Kaim, a senior fellow for international security at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said he and other analysts were at first “totally surprised” by Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s pledge to significantly raise military spending to support Ukraine “for as long as it takes” and to eventually eliminate the country’s dependence on Russian energy.
But the policy changes since then have been less dramatic, he said.
Critics say the German government has not done enough to help Ukraine. A particular sticking point is Germany’s refusal to send Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine. Mr. Scholz and his government ministers have said that the German military’s arsenal was too depleted to send heavier equipment and that they do not want Germany to be the first country to send modern Western tanks to Ukraine.
Germany announced a 100 billion euro ($113 billion) increase in defense funding this year. Even so, it will not reach NATO’s goal of having each member spend at least 2 percent of its gross domestic product on its own defense each year, a target Mr. Scholz vowed to meet, according to a forecast by the German Economic Institute, a think tank based in Cologne.
Jeffrey Rathke, a former senior U.S. diplomat and the president of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, said Germany and other European countries would be in a stronger position to continue opposing Russia this winter.
Source link
