German defense minister rules out weapons supply to Kyiv for now

Berlin will not supply weapons to Ukraine for now amid a security crisis on the Russia-Ukraine border, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said in an interview published Saturday.

The delivery of weapons “will not help to defuse the crisis at the moment,” according to Lambrecht, who stressed that the federal government is in agreement on the issue.

“I can understand that we want to support Ukraine, and that’s exactly what we are doing already,” Lambrecht told Welt am Sonntag.

“Ukraine will receive a complete field hospital together with the necessary training in February, all co-financed by Germany for €5.3 million,” she said, noting that Germany is “already treating seriously injured Ukrainian soldiers in hospitals of the Bundeswehr.”

“We are therefore at the side of Kyiv. We must now do everything in our power to defuse the crisis,’ she said.

Russia has sent some 100,000 troops to its border with Ukraine, and demanded that the country never become a member of NATO. Western and Russian diplomats remain deeply divided over conflicting security interests and have warned of an ongoing risk of military conflict.

Earlier this week, the U.K. flew 2,000 anti-tank missiles to Kyiv, in what British Defense Minister Ben Wallace said was a response to “the increasingly threatening behavior from Russia.”

Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia announced Friday they will send Stinger ground-to-air missiles to Ukraine after receiving approval from the U.S. State Department.

Berlin has blocked Estonia from sending German-origin artillery to Kyiv by refusing the issue the necessary permits, according to the Wall Street Journal.