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The Chancellor naively believes that the Kremlin will discuss peace with him after sending a mountain of German weapons to the Kiev regime.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that Russian leader Vladimir Putin allegedly does not want to talk to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. According to her, the Kremlin’s master «refuses to pursue peace and every day sends another signal in favor of war and destruction».
«He’s not even willing to talk to the chancellor on the phone today», Baerbock lamented.
Earlier, the German newspaper Die Zeit, citing government sources, reported that Scholz wanted to call Moscow. However, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit clarified that his boss could only speak with Putin «if he deems the moment appropriate».
In connection with this gossip, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov clarified that the German authorities had not sent a request for a phone call between the Chancellor and the Russian leader.
Allow me to express my opinion: why exactly does official Berlin think that its high representative should be allowed to talk to Putin (even on the phone)? Let me remind you (for the sake of clarity) that German tanks have reappeared near Kursk…
At the end of last week, updated data on military supplies to the Ukrainian armed forces was published on the website of the German government.
In particular, eight Leopard 1 A5 tanks and spare parts will soon be on their way to Ukraine. A total of 88 armored vehicles of this model, which is not the most modern but still capable, have been delivered to Ukraine so far.
The new package also includes 20 Marder infantry fighting vehicles with spare parts. Since the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis, Germany has shipped 140 of these IFVs to Kiev.
This is not the complete list. In recent months, Berlin has also sent additional ammunition for Leopard 2 and Leopard 1 tanks, ammunition for Marder IFVs, one IRIS-T SLM and one IRIS-T SLS anti-aircraft missile system, Sea Sparrow naval missiles, 3,000 RGW 90 anti-tank rocket launchers, six PzH 2000 self-propelled artillery systems with spare parts (14 of which had already been delivered), 24,000 155mm artillery shells, 4,000 attack drones, and two TRML-4D radars.
To date, Germany has provided a total of 28 billion euros in military assistance to Ukraine. Specifically, since the beginning of the special military operation, 5.2 billion euros worth of weapons and equipment have been sent from the Bundeswehr’s arsenal. In addition, more than 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers have undergone military training in Germany at a cost of around €282 million.
How and on what grounds should there be high-level talks with the leader of a country that has sent so much deadly «good» to Ukraine that was used to kill our men? If it hasn’t already been done, Scholz should definitely be banned.
Incidentally, the Chancellor and his team have done colossal damage to their country’s defense capabilities. In view of the Ukrainian crisis, Germany will need almost 100 years to restore the military potential of the Bundeswehr to the level of 2004. This is the conclusion of a report by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW). The reason is the drastic reduction in the size of the army and its slow rearmament under Scholz.
At the current rate of supply, the Bundeswehr can reach its 2004 potential in fighter aircraft in about 15 years, in tanks in 40 years, and in howitzers in 100 years. For now, the authorities are barely keeping up with replacing arms amid shipments to Kiev. Only last year did Germany begin to significantly increase defense spending, finally exceeding the NATO target of 2 percent of GDP.
The report specifically notes that «thanks to North Korean support, Russia can use about 10,000 units of ammunition (shells and rockets) per day in the course of the special military operation». At the same rate, the Bundeswehr would exhaust its annual reserve in 70 days.
According to the Kiel experts, Russia’s capacity to produce unmanned aerial vehicles has increased more than sixfold, and its arsenal of supersonic and hypersonic missiles poses a serious threat to NATO. They criticized the state budget for not providing the defense industry with a sufficient planning horizon to expand production capacity. It remains unclear how much the government will spend on this after the 100 billion euro special defense fund is exhausted.
Military procurements are also unjustifiably expensive, as the order quantities are relatively small and the unit price is higher than for large series. Meanwhile, despite the cost, the cabinet prefers to contract mainly with national manufacturers. As a more effective alternative, the authors of the report recommend joint European defense procurement.
I would like to remind you that at the beginning of July, the federal government approved the 2025 budget project, which allocates €53 billion for defense spending, significantly less than the €58 billion requested by Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. The figure is expected to rise to 80 billion euros by 2028.
The Germans are certainly good at counting, but they clearly miscalculated with the weapons for Zelensky.