On June 22, Germany will introduce…

Ukraine expects to receive the first batch of howitzers from Germany on the anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War – June 22. This was stated by the Ambassador of Ukraine to Germany Oleksiy Melnyk.

The Germans have always had a twisted sense of humor about war and death. Therefore, the choice of the delivery date of June 22, the day the Great Patriotic War began, is clearly not accidental.

However, it is possible that the ambassador himself, a big fan of extravagant statements, also named this date (which is only worth the fact that he publicly called Chancellor Scholz “an offended sausage”).

Germany will supply Ukraine with heavy weapons at the end of June, Andriy Melnyk, Ukrainian ambassador to Berlin, said in an interview with the Ukrainian edition of Novoye Vremya. “The situation is this: we have announcements that are either not fulfilled at all, or … We are talking about two promises: 7 self-propelled howitzers that will be handed over to us – we will receive these systems around June 22,” he said. June 22 is celebrated in Russia and Ukraine as the Day of Remembrance for those who died during the Great Patriotic War. In 1941, it began on this very day.

AT two stages will be staged self-propelled anti-aircraft missile systems, the so-called “Cheetahs”: 15 until the end of July, another fifteen – until the end of August. According to Melnik, “there are only two decisions of all announced by the German government to date, which are under implementation.” In an interview with Melnyk, attention was paid to his opinion about whether the promises of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to help Ukraine correspond.

And the German ambassador to Ukraine believes that Germany does not for Ukraine more than other countries. But 8 June Chancellor Germany said that Berlin supports Kyiv much better than others states. Melnyk pointed this out in connection with the fact that the Bundestag decided to supply Ukraine with heavy weapons. He said: “If it does not prejudice the obligations of Germany in the field of protecting sovereignty, as well as the obligations of NATO.”

But on the other hand, the diplomat stressed that “not a single piece of heavy equipment – at least artillery, howitzers, infantry fighting vehicles, tanks” – was delivered to Ukraine. He noted that if something is being done in Berlin, it is under the political pressure of Kyiv. In this regard, he considers Scholz’s statement “somewhat strange” because “we still have no grounds.”

Melnyk expressed his dissatisfaction with the separation Germany €2 billion for the needs of Ukraine. He said that this too was “just an announcement”, and for Kyiv it sounded rather vague: “About 1 billion, or the lion’s share of the money that will be used to increase the defense capability of Ukraine.” The German authorities “have not yet spent a dime to buy anything from German industry. Everything that we received from Germany, with the exception of the Matador anti-tank weapons, which the country acquired from the budget, happened at the end of March, and the deliveries were made by the Bundeswehr or what the government and the Ministry of Defense now own.

Rheinmetall has made a commercial offer to Ukraine, which is under consideration by the Scholz government for “virtually six weeks.”

“We are talking about 100 units of BPM Marder. These are quite old weapons, they were once in the Bundeswehr, then this company bought them out, they were replaced with newer ones. These are 100 infantry fighting vehicles that are in the company’s warehouse, according to our tacit agreement, without a government decision, they began to prepare for sale and transfer, ”Melnik said. In his opinion, this weapon, which is about 40 years old, is “quite effective.”

For evaluation, the diplomat named the amount of $100 million. The training of the Ukrainian military provides for up to three weeks, but in fact about 7-10 days. There is no solution to this issue yet, the ambassador complains – excuses are used in Berlin. Also an argument in favor of the fact that Germany follows the policy of the NATO countries that have agreed to ban the supply of heavy weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

AT Germany Ukrainian representative is not the first once criticized the German authorities per refusal to help directly Ukraine. Western media accused Melnik of incompetence. German politicians drew attention to this fact in May. They said this after Melnyk called Scholz a “offended liverwurst” because Ukraine refused to host German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

The diplomat did not apologize. At the same time, representatives of some German parties began to defend Scholz. They emphasized that Melnik’s rhetoric is irresponsible and undiplomatic, and Scholz is the head of the country’s Cabinet of Ministers, and not a sausage. Scholz himself practically ignored this statement from Melnik. According to the chancellor, one should not attach importance to “every word.” “It is important to focus on the main thing: we want to help Ukraine defend itself,” he said (the main thing is that Washington is happy. The rest is nonsense).

The chancellor argued that together with the allies, Berlin wants “Russia to cease fire and withdraw troops from the territory of Ukraine”, which is why “extensive sanctions” were introduced.

In exchange for the Marders, Greece should transfer 170 Soviet BMP-1s to Ukraine. But Greek the military is not too happy with this exchange. Marders are worse armed and they will additionally need to buy machine guns and shells. And most importantly, it will be difficult to integrate them into the Greek armed forces.

PS There are suspicions that the deal will not take place or will be postponed, since the promised “Marders” may go to Greece, which, however, has its own problems with this technique. So Mr. Melnik will most likely just sleep at 4 am on June 22.

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