Scholz, in Davos: “We will continue to help Ukraine as long as it takes”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum, which is being held in Davos (Switzerland). “Russia has already completely failed in its attempt to achieve its imperialist goals. Ukraine is defending itself with great success and impressive courage. The international alliance, led by the G-7, provides the country with financial aid and military assistance,” Scholz began. “Germany alone made 12 billion euros available last year and we We will continue to help Ukraine for as long as necessary,” he added. “But for the war to end, Russian aggression must fail. And that is why we are continuously helping Ukraine with large amounts of weapons in close cooperation with our allies. This includes air defense systems, such as the Iris T and the Patriot, artillery and armed infantry vehicles,” added Scholz, whose government has suffered for decades. days of pressure from its Western partners to allow modern tanks to be sent to Ukraine.

However, the German Chancellor did not announce this Wednesday in Davos any decision concerning the Leopard 2, the German-made tanks that Poland and Finland – which have them – want to send to Kyiv, although both need the permission from Berlin, the country where they are made, to export them. Warsaw and Reykjavik are precisely the two partners with the most Leopard tank units ready for rapid supply to Kyiv. Asked during Question Time about the possible tank shipment, Scholz defended that Germany is, along with the United Kingdom, the second country that has most supported Ukraine after the United States. “We are not only supporting Ukraine with financial and humanitarian aid, but also with a lot of weapons. And if you look at that, we are one of the countries that do the most,” he insisted. .

“And we will continue to provide such help,” added Scholz, who described the multiple-launch missile systems that Berlin delivered to Ukraine as highly effective. “We will continue to deliver weapons to Ukraine which are very important for the air defense of Ukraine,” the foreign minister said, quoting Iris T. “This is our strategy, based on joint communication with our allies, we work with them, we discuss with them and we will not do anything alone, but with them, in particular with the United States, which is very important in this common task of defending independence and sovereignty of Ukraine. As I said in my speech, we will do this for as long as necessary,” said Scholz, who also warned: “It is also clear that we will prevent this from becoming a war between Russia and NATO”.

The German government, at least for the moment, has not taken the step of sending tanks to Ukraine because it fears that the image of its armored vehicles in the face of Russian tanks on the battlefield represents a further escalation of the war. However, the UK already announced last weekend that it would donate 14 Challenger 2 tanks to Kyiv to help the Ukrainian army defend against the Russian invasion.

Ukraine has repeatedly claimed that the arrival of Western main battle tanks will give its armed forces enough firepower to repel Russian troops in decisive battles. Kyiv, which has been suffering from the invasion of Kremlin troops since February 24, estimates that it needs around 300 Western tanks. “My will, the will of Germany, the EU and the countries that help the Ukrainian nation, is that they can be an independent and democratic country that will succeed in joining the EU,” Scholz told the end of his speech. .

This same Friday, about thirty NATO defense officials and their partners will participate in Ramstein (Germany), the main American air base in Europe, in the Ukrainian Defense Contact Group. (THE COUNTRY)

In the video that follows these lines, you can see Scholz’s intervention in Davos: