Minister of Defense of the Federal Republic of Germany, Boris Pistorius, during the 18th meeting of the Contact Group on Defense of Ukraine (Ramstein format), announced his country's plans for supplying weapons to Ukraine in 2024. The list of supplies is available on the Ministry's website.
The list includes the IRIS-T SLM Infra Red Imaging System Tail Surface Launched Medium Range air defense systems, Gepard anti-aircraft tanks, over 80 main battle tanks Leopard 1 A5, additional artillery systems with more than 230,000 units of ammunition, armored personnel carriers, engineering tanks, and bridge-laying tanks, 450 protected vehicles, as well as demining systems, drones, radar systems, reconnaissance systems, and more.
Additionally, the Bundeswehr plans to train an additional 10,000 Ukrainian military personnel on its training grounds this year.
A new development is the delivery of six multi-role helicopters Sea King Mk41 with spare parts, starting from the second quarter of 2024, and the training of pilots before that time.
Pistorius, emphasizing the seriousness of Russia's air strikes on Ukraine since the beginning of the year, named air defense as his number one priority. He informed that Germany has supplied air defense systems to Ukraine for a total amount exceeding 2.2 billion euros since the start of the war. Furthermore, the federal government, along with France, took responsibility for creating a new coalition of capabilities in this field. In this context, the minister reminded of the coordination conference in Berlin in December of the previous year, initiated jointly by Germany and France, involving over 20 partners and allies, including Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Spain.
In addition to its leadership role in air defense, Germany also participates in other coalitions in areas such as artillery, maritime security, demining, information technology, combat armored vehicles, and plans to participate in a drone coalition.
The minister reminded that in December, Germany provided another Patriot Phased Array Tracking Radar to Intercept on Target system with 56 guided missiles.
Pistorius also noted that in recent weeks, almost every day, transports from Germany pass through the logistics hub in Poland to Ukraine.
In total, since the start of the full-scale war, military supplies from Germany have amounted to approximately 6 billion euros, according to the politician. Previous commitments account for around five billion euros until 2028. In 2024, funds for further military support to Ukraine will nearly double, reaching approximately 7.5 billion euros.
