Ukraine's counteroffensive: Kyiv needs money – traffic light debates tanks
Created: 09/13/2022, 09:23
By: Franziska Schwarz
Ukraine is hoping for a military turnaround - and is also dependent on aid from the West.
News ticker on diplomacy in the Ukraine war.
Heavy weapons
to the
Kiev
?
Traffic light coalition under Chancellor Olaf Scholz divided
Ukraine
lacks
money
in the war : exports fall drastically
Dispute
over the
grain deal
: new meeting between Putin and Erdogan
This
news ticker
on the
status of diplomacy
in the
Ukraine war
is continuously updated.
Kyiv/Berlin - Ukraine's counter-offensive puts Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin's military under pressure, and the course of the front is shifting.
It is clear to observers that this is also an effect of the arms deliveries from the West to Kyiv.
Is Germany doing enough on the issue?
The SPD continues to focus on warnings against "going it alone".
Heavy weapons to the Kyiv?
Traffic light coalition under Chancellor Olaf Scholz divided
Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) called for additional support, but without naming specific war equipment.
The FDP defense politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann did this: the German Leopard 2 main battle tank and Marder infantry fighting vehicle requested by the Ukrainian government with President Volodymyr Zelenskyj should be included.
The head of the Greens, Omid Nouripour, also found in the ARD daily topics that “more would be possible”.
So far, Germany's delivery list includes:
the anti-aircraft tank Gepard
the Panzerhaubitze 2000
Multiple Rocket Launcher
the Iris-T anti-aircraft system
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), meanwhile, relies on artillery and anti-aircraft defense and insists on international coordination.
He continues to evade the question of the delivery of Western battle tanks.
Ukraine lacks money in the war: exports fall drastically
In the export country Ukraine (grain, steel and iron), however, tax and customs revenues have collapsed since the beginning of the war.
The country keeps its head above water not only with corporate profits and billions in transfers from Western finance ministers - but also with the savings of Ukrainian families, reports the
Süddeutsche Zeitung
.
The budget is currently missing a good five billion euros every month - around half of all expenditure, according to the report.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, spending on the army, police, secret service and territorial defense has exploded there, and the National Bank is selling its foreign exchange reserves and buying war bonds as a makeshift solution.
According to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, the country's exports fell by a quarter in the first half of 2022, the
Kyiv Independent
reported .
Photo from the port of Mariupol: the Azovstal steelworks damaged during the fighting © Uncredited/AP/dpa
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Dispute over grain deal: new meeting between Putin and Erdogan
Then there is the grain deal between Ukraine and Russia.
The export agreement came about in July with Turkish mediation.
Last week, however, Putin criticized the implementation as insufficient - and indirectly threatened to let it burst again.
At the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Uzbek Samarkand, according to Russian sources, Putin wants to meet Xi Jinping, head of state of China, in addition to Turkish head of state Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The signals from the Kremlin for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are currently contradictory.
(frs with dpa material)