No deliveries from the Ministry of Defense: Ukraine orders weapons directly from German companies

Created: 04/11/2022 04:53

By: Astrid Theil

According to Defense Minister Lambrecht, arms deliveries to Ukraine from the Bundeswehr stocks are hardly possible.

(Archive image) © Philipp Schulze/dpa

Ukraine urgently needs weapons, which are not supplied by the German Ministry of Defense.

Ukraine is now ordering the weapons directly from the German manufacturers.

Kyiv - Ukraine needs weapons to defend itself against Russian troops and has also asked Germany for help.

Since Ukraine has not yet received the weapons it needs from the German government, it is now ordering some of them directly from German armaments companies such as Rheinmetall.

, Rheinmetall

originally offered 100 decommissioned Marder armored personnel carriers that had been on the company's premises for years.

However, since these first have to be repaired, the company suggested an exchange: the German armed forces should deliver operational Marders to the Ukraine immediately and then receive the tanks repaired by Rheinmetall in return.

Rejection without inspection: "Although the war of extermination is raging, there is no hurry in Berlin"

That would have significantly accelerated the delivery of tanks to Ukraine.

However, the Ministry of Defense rejected Rheinmetall's proposal.

The decision was justified with the statement that the Bundeswehr itself needs 141 tanks on NATO's eastern flank and around 100 for exercises and training.

In addition, the Ministry of Defense doubted that the Marder tanks, which had been standing on the Rheinmetall site for years, could be repaired quickly.

According to information from

, however, Christine Lambrecht's (SPD) ministry did not inspect the tanks.

There was no assessment of the condition and the need for maintenance.

The Ukrainian ambassador Andriy Melnyk was shocked to the

: "If it's true that the Ministry of Defense has not inspected at all, that's a scandal.

Although Russia's war of annihilation against the Ukrainian civilian population has been raging for 45 days, there is no hurry in Berlin.”

No deliveries: Ukraine now orders weapons directly from Rheinmetall

The Ukrainian government therefore wants to order the Marder directly from Rheinmetall.

According to information from

, the group plans to deliver 35 tanks to Ukraine by the end of the year.

Rheinmetall boss Armin Papperger told

that the first 20 Marders could be delivered within six to eight weeks.

50 more could follow within five to six months if the Chancellery agrees. 

There are also problems with ammunition.

According to information from

, at the end of March Rheinmetall asked the Ministry of Defense to buy back four million rounds of Marder ammunition in order to be able to deliver them quickly to Ukraine.

However, this request has so far remained unanswered.

Offer from Krauss-Maffei Wegmann: self-propelled howitzers for the Ukraine

According to a report by

, Ukraine has also received an offer worth billions for the delivery of German self-propelled howitzers.

As reported by

, citing government circles in Kiev, the armaments company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) is offering Ukraine the delivery of a hundred heavy weapons.

The offer had already been sent to the federal government at the working level.

According to the report, the delivery should take place in a ring exchange according to Ukraine's ideas.

The Bundeswehr should therefore make a hundred of its howitzers available to Kyiv at short notice.

According to Ukrainian government circles with reference to the offer from KMW, the first new howitzers could only be delivered 30 months after the contract was signed, i.e. in the second half of 2024 at the earliest. The complete delivery would not be completed until 2027.

War in Ukraine: Self-propelled howitzers and tanks needed

Self-propelled howitzers are similar to tanks and are not usually at the forefront of a battle.

Tanks must close in on enemy targets, while howitzers fire tens of kilometers away.

It is currently unclear how many howitzers the Bundeswehr actually has.

Figures from previous years are around 120 pieces.