Reuters reported that on May 10, during a visit to Kiev, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced that Berlin would stop announcing details of military aid packages for Ukraine.
Speaking to European leaders, Mr. Merz - who took office on June 6 - affirmed his commitment to support Kiev to remain unchanged, and called on Western countries to increase financial support. I hope you will do it with us, he said.
Some sources said the move shows that Germany is implementing a stratejic envelope policy similar to some Western countries, limiting disclosure of information about weapons and aid that could be exploited by opponents for strategic advantage.
Previously, in the early stages of the conflict, Berlin had announced the disruption of military aid. However, following pressure from lawmakers and the media, the German government has moved to publicize the detailed list of equipment provided to Ukraine.
Notably, the government website kept details updated even on May 6, the same day Mr. Merz took office.
According to official data, Germany has provided Ukraine with financial aid of 1.6 billion euros (2022), 5 billion euros (2023) and 7.1 billion euros (2024), respectively. In 2024 alone, this figure includes a contribution to the European Peace Fund (EPF) - a mechanism allowing the EU to partially return military aid to member countries. In the period of 2025 - 2028, Germany also plans to provide an additional 2.9 billion euros in aid.
In terms of military, Germany has transferred equipment from the Bundeswehr's reserve warehouse (Germany Federal Defense Forces) with a total replacement value of an estimated 5.2 billion euros. More than 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been trained in Germany, at a cost of about 282 million euros.
The German government also noted that the entire amount was not included in the cost of treating the injured Ukrainian soldiers.
To date, Berlin has provided a series of notable equipment: 103 1A5 Leopard tanks, 18 2A6 Leopard tanks, 140 Marder infantry fighting vehicles, 269 MRAP armored vehicles, more than 60 Gepard artillery pieces, 6 IRIS-T air defense systems, 619 VECTOR reconnaissance UAVs, 1,050 HF-1 attack UAVs, 9 Zuzana 2 self-propelled artillery pieces, 454,000 155 mm artillery shells, and tens of thousands of personal weapons and logistics equipment.
