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(Bloomberg) — Germany will no longer grant new requests for aid to Ukraine as the government seeks to rein in spending, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported.
Although existing programs will generally continue, additional applications for military support won’t be approved, the newspaper reported on Saturday citing government documents and emails as well as unidentified officials.
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The move follows a request from Chancellor Olaf Scholz, with Finance Minister Christian Lindner informing the defense ministry in an Aug. 5 letter, according to the newspaper.
Germany’s ruling coalition has been mired in bickering for months after a court ruling overturned billions of euros in funding, forcing budget cuts across the government. The three parties on Friday sealed a final agreement on next year’s spending plan, only after weeks of squabbling over limited funds.
Lindner, head of the fiscally hawkish Free Democrats, has insisted on restoring the constitutional borrowing limit — known as the debt brake — which was suspended to help deal with the pandemic and the energy crises. With German economic growth sputtering, that’s meant less money to spend.
In his letter to the defense ministry, Lindner downplayed the impact of the move, suggesting that funds could be made available to Kyiv from frozen Russian central bank assets. Still, it’s unclear how those resources could be tapped amid ongoing legal issues, the FAZ reported.
Under current plans, Germany’s military support for Ukraine — second only to the US, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy — is set to be almost halved next year and then reduced to less than a tenth of the current amount in 2027, the newspaper reported.
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