Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil arrived in Kyiv for talks

Vice -Chancellor and Federal Minister of Finance Lars Klingbeil explains German contributions to a possible peace process in Ukraine. “In close coordination with the Federal Chancellor, I am looking for the exchange of how Germany can support Ukraine in the best possible way in a possible peace process,” said the SPD leader after his arrival in the capital in the capital Kiev. “It’s about Ukrainian, but also about European security.”

It needs “reliable security guarantees that ensure permanent peace for Ukraine,” explained Klingbeil. “We are closely coordinated internationally. Germany will meet its responsibility.” The minister wanted to meet representatives of the Ukrainian government and parliament in Kyiv.

After the latest Ukraine summit in Washington, Germany and its partners work with high pressure on how reliable security guarantees could look and implement in detail. These are a prerequisite for the fact that after three and a half years of war, Ukraine could be willing to make concessions in negotiations with the attacker Russia.

In Germany, there is still no uniform position in the ranks of the Union and the SPD to the question of whether Germany should also participate with soldiers in possible security guarantees against renewed Russian attacks after a peace conclusion. However, the federal government has repeatedly emphasized that Germany is playing a leadership role.

Nobody longs for peace than the Ukrainians, said Klingbeil in Kiev. In this way, the federal government supports Ukraine. “It is now up to Russia to finally show a serious interest in a fair peace (Russia’s President Vladimir) Putin has to finally end his brutal war of aggression,” he said.

Klingbeil also confirmed the demand for an armistice. “While peace is being negotiated, people are not allowed to die from the brutal Russian attacks every day,” he said. There could be no negotiations about the heads of the Ukrainians.

“Putin should not make any illusions that our support for Ukraine could crumble. On the contrary: We remain the second largest worldwide and the largest supporter of Ukraine in Europe,” said Klingbeil. “As finance minister, I also bring the clear promise today: Ukraine can continue to rely on Germany.”

At the same time, there is already talk of a future reconstruction and the EU accession perspective in Ukraine. “For this, it is central to the fact that Ukraine consistently continues its reform path,” he warned.

The Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Selenskyj presses the pace with public statements. He expects security guarantees to be agreed for the period after the war in the coming days. “The teams of Ukraine, the United States and the European partner are currently working on their design. All developments will be completed in the coming days,” Selenskyj wrote at the X.

On February 24, 2022, Russia started his war of attack. According to the Federal Ministry of Finance, the total value of the bilateral support of the Federal Government for Ukraine since then has been around 50.5 billion euros.

Of this, around 25 billion euros in the inclusion of refugees from Ukraine, 17 billion euros on military support, 6.7 billion euros on civil support and 1.9 billion euros on budget aid. According to financial planning, bilateral military support is to be maintained at a high level of more than 8 billion euros annually by 2027.

With the last of the war, the annual financial needs of Ukraine remains high. Finance Minister Serhij Martschenko put the amount required from abroad for the financing of the Ukrainian budget in 2026 to the equivalent of almost 38.5 billion euros. This year, due to the rising costs, a supplementary budget of the equivalent of a good eight billion euros had to be launched.

Compared to the pre -war year 2021, the budget requirements have tripled. More than 40 percent of them are made with loans and aid payments from abroad. Since the beginning of the war, Ukrainian information has been received in the Ukrainian budget, according to the equivalent of more than 118 billion euros.

According to the chairman of the budget committee in parliament, Roxolana Pidlasa, the equivalent of over 54 billion euros will be spent on defense purposes. According to them, this corresponds to a little more than 31 percent of the gross domestic product that is expected for this year or two thirds of the entire state budget.