The Bundestag failed to vote on allocating an additional €3 billion in aid to Ukraine.

Members of the German parliament were forced to prematurely end the Bundestag session due to party disagreements over the issue of funding additional military assistance to Ukraine. This was reported by the agency “Ukrinform” and the radio station Deutsche Welle on Thursday, January 30.

It is noted that the proposal to allocate additional military assistance of up to 3 billion euros to Ukraine was put forward by the Free Democratic Party. The mentioned funds were intended to be directed towards the critically needed air defense systems for Ukraine. Only 320 deputies participated in the voting on this matter, while at least 366 votes are required for a decision to be made.

After the debates, Deputy Speaker of the Bundestag Katrin Göring-Eckardt from the “Alliance 90/The Greens” party prematurely closed the session, despite other issues still remaining on the agenda.

It is reported that another discussion regarding military assistance to Kyiv is scheduled to take place in the Bundestag later this week. This was initiated by left-wing political forces that oppose any supplies to Ukraine.

Blocking the Defense Package for Ukraine

Earlier, the newspaper Der Spiegel reported that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is against providing Ukraine with additional assistance of 3 billion euros, in order not to alienate potential voters ahead of the early elections on February 25. The German government did not confirm this information on January 10, but also did not deny it.

Subsequently, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius denied reports that Chancellor Olaf Scholz is blocking the provision of a military assistance package to Ukraine amounting to nearly 3 billion euros. However, he noted that the internal coordination of the assistance content within the German government is still ongoing.

The German government is unable to reach an agreement on how to provide Ukraine with additional military assistance. Olaf Scholz suggested doing this through an increase in public debt. In contrast, the opposition bloc of CDU/CSU, FDP, and some representatives of the Greens are convinced that supplying weapons to Ukraine can be financed through unplanned expenditures in the current year's budget, DW explains.

It should be noted that Germany plans to provide Ukraine with 4 billion euros in military assistance over the course of 2025. Annalena Baerbock emphasized that in 2024, the German government allocated nearly 7 billion euros to support Ukraine. According to the minister, if Germany now provides only half of last year's amount or slightly more, it would signify a reduction in Ukraine's ability to defend itself.