Germany blocks EU aid to Ukraine: gas tension and sanctions
Federico Fubini
The standoff prompted Zelensky to remove the Ukrainian ambassador to Berlin. Meanwhile, Germany seems willing to violate some sanctions.
For more than a month, Germany has been blocking the € 9 billion aid package that should represent the main form of EU support for Ukraine . The stalemate, confirmed by various protagonists both in Kiev and in Brussels, could be one of the reasons that prompted Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday to suddenly and rather brutally remove the Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin Andryi Melnyk .
However, there is a further reason behind the Ukrainian president’s nervousness of these hours: the suspicion that the Berlin government is preparing to violate some sanctions against Moscow in order to recover Russian gas supplies through the Nord Stream pipelines.
Both issues have been troubling the Ukrainian government and relations with Brussels for days, with no solution yet in sight. German opposition to the aid package seems unrelated to the gas crisis , so it probably does not reflect an attempt by Berlin to flatter Moscow just as the Kremlin maneuvers to cut off energy supplies to Europe. Yet Berlin’s obstacles to lending to Ukraine remain formidable.
The idea of the 9 billion aid, born in the spring by the Commission, was confirmed by all the leaders of the European Union at the end of May. The project provides for loans in Kiev repayable after 25 years and effectively without interest , thanks to funds that the Commission itself would collect by issuing debt guaranteed by European states on the market. But Germany, the largest and most solid of the guarantors of that form of Eurobond, is opposed: after having given the assent to the top of the leaders, now it is not there .
Berlin’s finance minister, the liberal Christian Lindner, does not like the fact that Brussels has recourse to common European debt in the Ukrainian crisis after having done so during the pandemic. For now, the German manager has given his approval only to a first tranche of one billion, the proceeds of which should be paid to Kiev by July. Meanwhile, time passes, Kiev claims that it needs aid of $ 5 billion a month and the hypothesis is that Ukraine will default on a 900 million euro foreign debt maturity in September.
More intricate, if possible, is the question of gas destined for Germany. The Russian monopoly Gazprom has announced a first cut in supplies on Nord Stream by 60%, then a second up to 90% officially between 11 and 21 July , offering a technical reason only in appearance: the gas pipeline in the Russian part works at reduced pace because a Siemens turbine is missing, already sent for repair in Germany and never returned because it is subject to sanctions.
Therefore, according to Moscow, Germany is running out of gas because it applies European measures against Russia. After all , the blockade of technological and industrial spare parts is considered the most effective weapon in Europe’s hand to weaken Russia and its Di lei regime. Meanwhile Siemens had sent Gazprom’s turbine to be repaired in Canada, which in effect was holding it back in application of the sanctions.
Two days ago came the turning point that sent Zelensky into a rage: the Minister of Economy Robert Habeck, leader of the Greens, requested and obtained the return of the turbine from Canada to Germany, giving clear signs of wanting to send it back to Russia. “If there is a legal problem for Canada, I ask that the turbine be shipped not to Russia but to us. We are forced to ask with a heavy heart - said Habeck -. We need the capabilities of Nord Stream to fill the gas storages ».
And if this is not setting the stage for a sanction violation, with Berlin attempting to bow to Moscow’s blackmail on energy, then it closely resembles us .
The Jerusalem Post: Ukraine wants Iron Dome sale from Israel, blasts anti-tank missile refusal.
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🇮🇱🇺🇦Reznikov said that the Iron Dome missile defense system is only good against “rockets from the garage.”
The complex was “rejected” by the Minister of Defense of Ukraine during an interview with Forbes.
“It was created against slow missiles flying at low altitudes, made, in fact, in garages,” he told reporters.
Actually, no one was going to give away or even sell the “Iron Dome” to Kyiv.
This was previously announced to the Ambassador of Ukraine to Israel Yevgeny Korneichuk.
By the way, in response, he demanded (yes, he demanded) from Israel “to leave the comfort zone and finally choose a side.”