Germany plans to reduce its military support for Ukraine to about 6 per cent of what it is now by 2027.
Earlier this summer, Berlin announced it would halve its funding for Kyiv from the current €8 billion (£6.8 million) to just €4 billion in 2025.
But a draft budget seen by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper reveals plans to cut spending to a mere €500 million in 2027.
The draft budget has sparked a torrent of criticism as Ukrainian forces seek to defend the country against Russia’s invasion.
Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, has struggled to find budget cuts to meet a huge hole in Berlin’s finances, with aid to Ukraine apparently falling victim to the shortfall.
In 2026, Ukraine will only receive around €3 billion from Germany. In 2027 and 2028, the figure falls to €500 million.
Some plans are already being put on ice. An air-defence system manufacturer Diehl planned to provide to Kyiv – if it received the funds from Berlin – is now seen as unlikely to be delivered.
Since 2022, Germany has allocated some €34 billion in military, humanitarian and financial aid to Ukraine – making the scale of the planned drawdown clear.
‘We must not sacrifice Ukraine’
“The German government has declared, like a mantra, that Germany is now the second-largest military supporter of Ukraine after the USA. It would be fatal now if the impression arose that Ukraine’s security and freedom no longer had any value to us,” said Michael Roth, chairman of the German parliament’s foreign affairs committee and member of Mr Scholz’s Social Democrats. “We must not sacrifice Ukraine’s fate on the altar of the debt brake.”
Christian Lindner, finance minister – whose liberal Free Democrats form part of Mr Scholz’s Left-leaning ‘‘traffic-light” coalition along with the Greens – argues Kyiv will be able to replace German funding through €50 billion the G7 recently agreed to make available from Russian central bank assets frozen in 2022.
However, critics point out this money is only a loan to Ukraine using the frozen assets as collateral – and will only last Ukraine about a year – with no G7 agreement yet for seizing the $300 billion in frozen assets themselves. Germany has also been one of the most reluctant to seize Russia’s assets.
“The idea that these cuts can be compensated with the interest on frozen Russian assets right now is absurd. The financial instruments simply don’t exist yet,” said Mattia Nelles, chief executive of the German-Ukraine Bureau. “Cutting military aid now is the worst possible time. It weakens Ukraine and sends the wrong signal to Moscow about our commitment.”
Roderich Kiesewetter, an MP with the opposition Christian Democrats (CDU) and deputy chair of parliament’s intelligence oversight committee, said the cuts would make the government’s recently signed security agreement with Ukraine “hot air and worthless”.
“Kohl, Schmidt and Adenauer would all turn in their graves!” Mr Kiesewetter tweeted, invoking the names of chancellors whose historical achievements included German entry into Nato and German reunification. “This isn’t how a self-proclaimed ‘leading nation’ in Europe conducts itself and it sends a fatal signal to our European partners, the US, and to Ukraine.”
Germany is set to have federal elections in 2025, which Mr Kiesewetter’s CDU is expected to win. However, Friedrich Merz, CDU leader, hasn’t yet said anything publicly whether he would reverse the cuts if he becomes chancellor.