Germany plans to halve its military aid for Ukraine, cutting more than £3 billion next year as it struggles to fill a black hole in its finances with spending cuts.
The reduction from one of Ukraine’s most generous sponsors risks renewed accusations from the United States that Europe is not doing enough to pay for a war in its own backyard.
Donald Trump and JD Vance, his vice-presidential nominee, have both demanded that European Nato allies increase their defence spending and pay more to Kyiv.
Berlin plans to slash aid from about €8 billion (£6.7 billion) to €4 billion, according to a draft of the 2025 budget for Europe’s biggest economy. It had previously doubled its support for 2024.
Germany hopes Ukraine will be able to meet the bulk of its military needs with the £38.4 billion in loans from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets agreed by the Group of Seven (G7), and that funds earmarked for armaments will not be fully used.
Germany has been Ukraine’s largest military backer, with its contributions only topped by the US. It has committed about £8.6 billion in weapons to Kyiv, according to figures published by the German-based Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks aid to the country.
Only the US has offered more lethal aid to Ukraine (£42.3 billion) but Germany has also been responsible for covering the bill for a quarter of the weapons funded by the EU.
The German government is under pressure to show fiscal discipline after a court ruled that using undeployed coronavirus recovery funds for green initiatives and industry support was unconstitutional.
The decision blew a hole of more than £50 billion in its finances, forcing Berlin to find spending cuts of up to £33.8 billion.
“Ukraine’s financing is secured for the foreseeable future thanks to European instruments and the G7 loans,” Christian Lindner, the German finance minister, said on Wednesday.
The Biden administration in Washington pushed to “front load” the loans to give Ukraine a big lump sum now. EU leaders agreed to reduce the risk of Trump cutting off Kyiv if he returns to the White House.
Mr Trump was criticised after suggesting the US would not protect Nato allies not meeting their target of spending 2 per cent of its economic output on defence if they were attacked by Russia.
The German army’s weapons stockpile, already run down by decades of underinvestment, have been further depleted by arms supplies to Kyiv.
Berlin has donated three Patriot air defence units to Kyiv, more than any other country, bringing down the number of Patriot systems in Germany to nine.
Days after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Olaf Scholz, the chancellor, announced a Zeitenwende – German for “historic turning point” – with a €100 billion special fund to bring the military up to speed.
The warring coalition of Mr Scholz’s centre-Left SPD, the pro-business FPD and Greens plans to meet the Nato spending target in 2025, with a total of just under £63.3 billion.
Estonia and other countries bordering Russia are calling for the Nato target to be raised to 2.5 per cent, while some nations such as Poland are already spending 4 per cent and plan to pay more.
Boris Pistorius, the German defence minister, wanted about £5 billion a year on top of his £44 billion budget.
After weeks of negotiations with the SPD’s coalition partners, he was given just over £1 billion more than in 2024.
That is not enough to cover 2.2 per cent annualised inflation rates or surging weapons prices and amounts to a real terms cut.
The defence ministry is being forced to cut ammunition orders for 2025 by more than half, reduce procurement by about £218 million and research and development by over £168 million.
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