Kiev does not have the resources to launch another counteroffensive anytime soon, Berlin reportedly believes
Germany has no more military hardware to offer Ukraine beyond what has already been pledged, even as Kiev remains hard-pressed by Russia on the front line, Bild reported on Saturday.
According to the outlet, the German Defense Ministry does not believe that Ukraine will be capable of launching “an offensive to liberate its own territory” in the near future.
The report also said, citing an internal document, that Berlin would no longer send “heavy weapons” to Ukraine, and that deliveries of this type of aid have been “completed.” The term applies to tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers, self-propelled howitzers and similar hardware.
In addition, Bild wrote, a supposedly new €1.4 billion ($1.53 billion) military aid package German Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently pledged in fact refers to commitments promised and paid for last year.
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has obtained neither the permission to use Western-made weapons to strike deep in Russia – including German Taurus missiles, which Berlin has not supplied – nor the promise of a speedy NATO accession process, the article said.
The last time Ukraine launched a full-scale counteroffensive to retake the territory it claims as its own was in early June 2023, with some of the fiercest fighting taking place in the southern sector of the front in Zaporozhye Region.
Although the fighting raged for much of the summer and fall, Ukrainian troops made little progress and suffered heavy casualties. Officials in Kiev blamed the lackluster performance on intel leaks and delays in weapons deliveries by the West, which they said allowed Russia to prepare formidable defenses.
In early August, Ukraine also launched an incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region. While its troops initially made some progress, their advance was soon halted, with fighting ongoing. At the same time, Russian forces have made notable gains in Donbass, liberating numerous settlements in recent weeks.
Since the escalation of the conflict in 2022, Germany has provided Ukraine with €5.2 billion ($5.7 billion) in military aid, including Leopard tanks and other heavy equipment. In August, German media reported that the government would stop new shipments to Kiev in a bid to reduce spending. Both Kiev and Berlin have denied the claim.
Moscow has repeatedly warned that deliveries of Western weapons to Ukraine only serve to prolong the fighting and increase the risk of a direct confrontation with NATO.
