Merz on tour: German arms deliveries in Ukraine again secret

After three years of far -reaching transparency, the new federal government will once again keep German arms deliveries to Ukraine largely secret. “In the future, the federal government will significantly reduce communication for the delivery of weapon systems,” says governmental circles.

This primarily wants to “refuse military advantages to the aggressor in the Ukraine War”. It is part of the “tactics in warfare” to reduce public debates on arms deliveries.

Since June 2022 weapons list on the Internet

With this, the black-red government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) returns to a practice that already existed immediately after the start of the war under the traffic light government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The SPD politician decided on February 27, 2022 – three days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine – to deliver weapons to the attacked country. There was hardly any communication about it for about four months.

In June 2022, the Federal Government then decided to put a detailed list of all arms delivery on the Internet after public pressure. To date, all delivered weapons with quantities are set on bundes- Government.de. It says, for example, that Germany has delivered 25 armored shaft, 121 Leopard tanks, 1,050 armed drones or 478,000 shot artillery ammunition.

From then on, the Scholz government wanted to prove that Germany is the largest arms supplier in Ukraine to the USA. The last update of the list took place on May 6, the day of the appointment of the new federal government.

What else does the Bundestag find out?

Now it is over. The new federal government is taking a turnaround and keeps the arms delivered secret again to create a “strategic ambiguity”, as it says in technical jargon: an ambiguity to disguise the opponent’s acting.

How the Bundestag will be informed about the arms deliveries in the future has not yet been communicated. Contrary to the sending of soldiers, the parliament does not have to agree. Parliament is probably informed about the arms deliveries in a secret meeting of the Defense Committee.

Taurus also falls under confidentiality

The Federal Government’s change of course also has an impact on a delicate open question of Friedrich Merz’s Ukraine policy: Is the March missile Taurus delivered or not? Merz had emphasized in the election campaign that he was ready for delivery, but only in coordination with the allies who have already delivered or have had similar weapons.

In Europe, these are France and Great Britain. The French President Emmanuel Macron had already said on Tuesday when visiting Merz in Paris when asked about a journalist about a possible German taurus delivery that one no longer wanted to talk about something like that. “We will be transparent to the Ukrainians, we will cover their needs, but will talk about it as little as possible,” he said. That is good for the protection of the Ukrainians.

“Don’t talk about weapons categories in every press conference”

“That is why we decided that we do not give any clear information in certain areas,” said Macron. “We won’t talk about weapon categories and arms models in every press conference. Because it could well be that the Russian army also hears the answer to your questions.”