Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany would continue to send heavy weapons to Ukraine, saying it was its historic responsibility to help the Kyiv government defend itself against Russian aggression.
He commented on a speech marking the 77th anniversary of the Allied victory in World War II.
“We learned a basic lesson from the catastrophic history of our country between 1933 and 1945,” he said in a televised address. “There is no more war. No more genocide. No more tyranny. “
“In the current situation, this can only mean one thing: we are defending justice and freedom – on the side of the victim. We support Ukraine in its fight against the aggressor. Failure to do so, he added, would be like “surrendering to brute force.”
Scholz’s speech reflects a change in his thinking about arming Ukraine. He initially ruled out providing Kyiv with heavy weapons such as tanks and armored vehicles, saying it could make Germany a party to the war and provoke a nuclear conflict with Russia.
But in recent days he has changed his tune. On Friday, the government announced that it would provide Ukraine with seven self-propelled howitzers, a type of artillery known as PzH 2000. This followed a decision to give Kyiv about 50 Gepard anti-aircraft guns.
Officials have made it clear that these will not be the last such deliveries. “For the first time in our post-war history, we have sent weapons – including heavy weapons – into a war zone, on a large scale, and we always weigh them carefully,” Scholz said. “And we will continue to do so.”
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However, the decision to increase military aid to Kyiv proved controversial. Renowned feminist Alice Schwarzer was one of a number of intellectuals who signed an open letter to the government late last month expressing fears that the supply of heavy weapons would lead to World War III.
Scholz acknowledged that many Germans were “concerned that the war would spread and that our peace could be threatened.” People should be allowed to express such fears, he said.
“But at the same time, it’s important to say that fear shouldn’t paralyze us,” he added.
However, Scholz insisted that Germany “will not make decisions that would turn NATO into a country in this war.” Berlin will also do nothing that “harms us and our partners more than Russia.”
Scholz saw his opinion polls fall in recent days amid increasing scrutiny of his policy in Ukraine, with critics accusing him of hesitation and indecision over Kyiv’s armaments. Early forecasts for Sunday’s regional election in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein showed his Social Democrats down nearly 12 points from their worst-ever result in the state, finishing third after the Christian Democrats and Greens.
The German chancellor said that this year’s celebration of the end of World War II “is like no other”. Seventy-seven years after the capitulation of Nazi Germany, “brute force” is once again ravaging a European country, with the Russian army “killing men, women and children, completely destroying cities and even attacking refugees.”
Scholz said that the fact that Putin was trying to justify Russia’s attack on Ukraine as a fight against Nazism was “disgraceful” and a “falsification of history.”
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