Germany is not an ally of Ukraine, nor is it obliged to intervene in the conflict within the framework of any alliance, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said.
Germany ranks second in terms of the scale of assistance to Kyiv being "far ahead of others,” Pistorius said. Berlin is doing what it can do, and this is true for almost all other allies and partners, the German official told ZDF channel.
The minister answered a question of whether the current situation means that the united West was not able to "fight back.”
"First of all, we are not an ally of Ukraine. This means that we are not in a situation that binds us to intervene as part of the alliance," the German Defence Minister said.
The German defence industry can not ensure timely supplies of weapons in the required quantities, Pistorius also said.
The course of the conflict is difficult to predict, so one should rely primarily on the stability of supplies, despite any possible problems.
In mid-November, Pistorius admitted that Germany could not supply one million shells to Ukraine. European countries were working to increase the production of shells, he added.
In mid-November, Der Tagesspiegel reported that assistance packages to Kyiv were in jeopardy due to a hole of 60 billion euros that had appeared in the German budget for 2024.
Yet, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz assured that Berlin would continue supporting Ukraine, despite budget problems. At the same time, he noted that the German authorities would do their best to maintain unity in Germany.