BERLIN, April 11. /TASS/. Acting German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that he was caught off guard by media reports that German weapons handed over to Kiev were substandard.
"I took note of these reports with surprise," he said on the sidelines of a meeting of the contact group on arms supplies to Ukraine. The top defense official pointed out that he was "in constant contact with Ukrainian partners" and was not aware of complaints about German combat systems.
On Thursday, the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported that almost all military equipment supplied by Germany to Ukraine is unsuitable for combat. The newspaper referred to a classified report by the deputy military attache of the German embassy in Kiev. He read it out at the end of January at a training facility for junior officers in Delitsch (Saxony). The report outlines the Ukrainian army’s experience using military equipment from Germany. Thus, feedback from Ukrainian troops indicates that most of the weapons Germany has sent to Kiev are not even used.
Some of the reasons cited are overly expensive ammunition and what they called "vulnerable" equipment that "can hardly be repaired at the front." The rapporteur's summary was as follows: "Sophisticated equipment is not used. The extent to which highly modern and sophisticated large equipment is utilized is small if troops cannot make repairs on the ground." The overall summary said: "Hardly any German large military equipment is fully suitable for combat operations."
Germany is the second-largest supplier of weapons to the Ukrainian military after the United States. Since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, Berlin has provided Kiev with various kinds of assistance worth about 44 billion euros. The Russian side has repeatedly noted that pumping weapons into the Kiev regime only leads to prolonging the conflict.
