Germany breaks taboo by delivering arms to Ukraine

It's the end of a long taboo.

Back to the wall in the face of criticism, Germany hardened its position on Saturday February 26 against Russia by agreeing to deliver weapons to Ukraine at war, and to partially exclude Moscow from the Swift interbank platform.

The arms decision is a major political reversal for this country, whose official position since the Second World War has been not to deliver "lethal" weapons to conflict zones.

There were, however, exceptions that generated controversy.

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Today, Berlin authorized the delivery to Kiev of 1,400 anti-tank rocket launchers, 500 Stinger surface-to-air missiles and nine howitzers, the government announced.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a statement.

In concrete terms, 1,000 rocket launchers will come directly from German army stocks and 400 others, which were initially delivered to the Netherlands, will now go to Ukraine.

The howitzers will come from Estonia, which acquired them first after Berlin.

These howitzers are old, they once belonged to the army of the former communist East Germany.

At the same time, the German government announced the dispatch to Ukraine of 14 armored vehicles as well as 10,000 tons of fuel

.

," said the government source.

"After Russia's shameful attack, Ukraine must defend itself

," said Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.

Berlin is thus responding to the vehement criticism it has been the subject of for several weeks for its refusal to export such weapons, coming both from the Ukrainian authorities but also from partners of the European Union such as the Baltic States or Poland.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded by calling on Olaf Scholz to

in

.

Berlin also gives in on Swift

The restrictive policy followed by the first European economy since the post-war period in terms of arms exports has its source in the horrors of Nazism which gave birth to a pacifism deeply rooted in public opinion.

This position was, however, less and less tenable politically since the outbreak of the invasion of the country by the Russian army.

Another taboo broken this Saturday: the government began to give in on Swift, after having long refused to consider excluding Moscow from this key cog in global finance, for fear of being penalized in return for its deliveries of gas, oil and Russian coal.

Annalena Baerbock and her Economics counterpart, Robert Habeck, said in a joint statement that they were working on

of Swift for Russian financial institutions.

,” they added.

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Swift allows interbank settlements between institutions around the world and, for example, prevents Germany from having to pay for its Russian gas in cash.

An exclusion is considered an "atomic weapon" in financial matters.

Because disconnecting a State from Swift also means preventing its own banks from making transactions with the banks of the punished country.

In detail, the idea is to exclude from this electronic platform, through which a very large number of international transactions pass, the Russian banks already targeted by sanctions from the European Union.

The latter represent 70% of the Russian banking market, according to the EU.

On Saturday, before the German announcement, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, visiting Berlin, had described

Germany's attitude towards Swift

In the midst of a battle to take control of Kiev, Volodymyr Zelensky also urged Berlin on Saturday to have the

to block Russia's access to Swift.

Several other European countries reluctant on the subject, such as Austria, Italy and Hungary, have also indicated that they are now ready to accept the “sanction” Swift, isolating Berlin at once.