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During the Russian special operation in Ukraine, the word “sholtsov” appeared in the speech of the inhabitants of the country – to give empty promises, writes the Czech portal iDNES.сz. In the opinion of not only Ukrainians, but even the Germans themselves, Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other German politicians made loud statements about helping Ukraine with weapons so many times that there was a feeling of their complete inability to realize the promise, write the German media.
After Berlin published a list of arms supplies to Ukraine, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung criticized the actions of the German government: “On paper, the federal government is one of the main suppliers of weapons to Kyiv. But on closer examination, it becomes clear that no country has ever had a larger gap between claims and deliveries.”
And according to the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, from March 30 to May 26, the German government actually reduced aid to Ukraine to a minimum. The publication, in response to Scholz's statement that Germany is “one of the main assistants to Ukraine” and provides its weapons in large volumes, posted an article about the actual volumes of German deliveries. It turned out that Germany, instead of the promised heavy weapons, sent spare parts for machine guns, fuses, hand grenades and mines. In addition, as follows from the list of supplied weapons published by the German government, Germany did not transfer any of the previously promised Marder armored personnel carriers.
According to the iDNES.сz portal, “in the era of “tweets” and information that lives for a maximum of an hour, empty words sometimes cost more than actions, and Berlin understands this very well.” The publication believes that this is why Scholz made a loud statement about providing Ukraine with Iris missile systems, which, as it turned out later, are not yet even at the disposal of the Bundeswehr.
At the end of April, Germany announced the delivery of Gepard self-propelled guns to Ukraine, but they were never sent due to the need to coordinate their export with the Swiss authorities. And on May 17, Scholz said that self-propelled guns “first need to be prepared.” Now, according to the calculations of experts, if they are nevertheless sent, then the combat vehicles will not reach the front line until July, which may be too late.
According to military expert Johann Wadepool, Scholz is trying to replace deliveries with announcements , and observers consider it strange that the FRG, the world's fifth arms exporter, has problems with supplies to Ukraine. So, since March, the German government has not been able to approve the transfer of hundreds of the already mentioned Marder armored personnel carriers, which are in stock and ready to ship.
As they write on the iDNES.сz portal, German Deputy Defense Minister Simti Moller was accused of lying, when she stated that the armored personnel carriers were not sent due to agreements between NATO countries not to transfer Western-style heavy weapons to Ukraine. Later, the words of the German Minister of Defense that the country had nothing left that could be sent to Ukraine aroused reasonable doubts.
As a result, German experts note that the situation with the supply of weapons looks strange and gives rise to the most seditious thoughts: “And what if we don't give Ukraine anything we could actually help it with?”.