Germany Becomes Second Largest Arms Supplier to Ukraine | Farsnews Agency

(FNA)- Berlin is the second largest supplier of weapons to Ukraine at the moment, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said on Tuesday, responding to criticism that her country was not delivering enough weapons to kyiv.

 “As far as Ukraine is concerned, Germany has become the second largest arms supplier, I think,” Lambrechts told an Atlantic Council think tank event in Washington, without giving details, CVV News reported.

“Germany will achieve NATO’s planning goals sooner than promised,” Lambrecht said, according to a draft text of a speech he was to deliver at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington.

“We will have the planned division of the army ready for combat in 2025, two years in advance,” Lambrecht added.

While Germany does not have a single combat-ready army division at the moment, it had 12 divisions of this type in the 1980s, during the Cold War.

Under its original schedule, Berlin aimed to have one combat-ready division in 2027 and a total of three combat-ready divisions in 2032.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in a major policy change for the country after decades of attrition, promised to inject 100 billion euros into the Bundeswehr after the start of the war in Ukraine.

The money will go towards increasing the readiness of the German army, mainly by purchasing weapons and equipment that the troops have lacked until now.

Since Scholz’s historic speech on February 27, three days after the invasion, Berlin has announced the purchase of F-35 fighter jets from the United States and has said it intends to purchase a missile defense system. Scholz also said that Germany would drastically increase defense spending to over 2% of its economic output.