German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht has resigned amid growing doubts about her ability to revive Germany's armed forces amid the war in Ukraine. Another reason is the pressure on Germany to increase defense support for Ukraine. This was reported by the Reuters agency on Monday, January 16.
The decision to resign the defense minister dealt a blow to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at a time when the country is under pressure to approve an increase in international military support for Kyiv, and Germany's own defense capability has been called into question after several Puma infantry tanks were disabled under during recent military exercises, the agency writes.
“Lambrecht was accused of failing to quickly get the German armed forces (Bundeswehr) back into shape, despite a special fund of EUR 100 billion (USD 108.11 billion) being agreed for the purpose after Russia's invasion of Ukraine," the message said.
The pressure on the German Ministry of Defense is also growing because a military conference at the American military base in Ramstein regarding further support to Ukraine, including the issue of the possibility of sending German-made tanks, is approaching, Reuters writes.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on January 13, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Poland, Finland and three other countries are ready to provide Ukraine with German-made Leopard 2 main battle tanks, but they are waiting for Germany's consent to do so.
On January 13, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto announced readiness to supply Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.
It will be recalled that on January 9, German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said in an interview to the German channel ARD that Berlin does not rule out the supply of tanks to Ukraine.
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