You didn’t really believe that Germany was going to spend that 100 billion euro special fund for the military for the military, did you?
German military in worse shape than before Russia’s invasion – The German military is suffering from a greater shortage of weapons and equipment than before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces said in her annual report on Tuesday.
“The Bundeswehr has too little of everything, and it has even less since (Russia’s invasion on) Feb. 24, 2022,” Eva Hoegl, who acts as an advocate defending the rights of the troops, told reporters in Berlin.
Into the EU? Even though nobody in the EU dares refer to illegal border crossings as illegal border crossings?
EU got to love it, Europeans. You have no choice. It’s not like anybody is asking for your approval or permission.
German cities struggling with winter influx of migrants from the Western Balkans – This winter, cities in Germany faced yet another influx of refugees but this time it was not Ukrainians fleeing war but people from Western Balkan countries seeking to escape their countries’ harsh winters and poor social living conditions.
The Western Balkan route was, in 2022, the most used for illegal border crossings into the EU, according to the bloc’s external border agency. Frontex recorded 145,600 illegal crossings through the Western Balkan, a 136% jump from the previous year and the highest number observed since 2015.
Germans love announcing turning points. It makes things sound so, I dunno, official or something. And it’s official here too: Their latest military turning point is working almost as well as their energy turning point (Energiewende) did. Namely, not at all.
Germany’s military ‘Zeitenwende’ is off to a slow start.
Three days after Russia invaded Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz delivered a rousing speech to the Bundestag. He had a clear message: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression has ushered in a new era of war in Europe, and wealthy countries like Germany, having pared down their defense spending for decades, needed to rearm. A year after German lawmakers applauded Scholz’s call to action, and as Scholz visits the White House on March 3, 2023, one must ask what has become of Germany’s much-heralded Zeitenwende, or “turning point.”
To Mini-Mr. Nothing himself. Wow, and to think that he flew all the way over from Germany just to receive this nothing. But it was “profound” nothing, after all. And that’s certainly better than nothing. So think nothing of it.
Biden thanks Scholz for ‘profound’ German support on Ukraine – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Biden praised trans-Atlantic unity and vowed to keep up their joint cooperation to support Ukraine during Scholz’s visit to the White House.
Ukraine updates: Germans see arming Ukraine as involvement.
A poll conducted by Germany’s DPA news agency suggests many Germans disapprove of arming Ukraine in its war against Russia. Meanwhile, Russia’s Medvedev denied the country was running out of missiles.
Fifty-one percent of the respondents thought arming Ukraine meant being part of the war, an argument that Russia has been pushing. Meanwhile, 37% disagreed with the statement.
Germany has approved some €2.6 billion ($2.75 billion) worth of weapons and armaments since the start of the war.
Forty percent of those polled considered the amount of weapons support from Germany to be too much, 22% thought it was too little, and 23% thought it was just the right amount.
That means Sunday sermons. As in political sermons that sound nice to those giving them but never lead to anything other than nonbinding resolutions.
Like the one German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock gave yesterday at the United Nations – the world’s most popular venue for Sonntagsreden.
Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock addressed the United Nations General Assembly before a vote for a U.N. resolution upholding Ukraine’s territorial integrity and calling for a cessation of hostilities after Russia’s invasion. Every country, she argued, had a duty to send a clear signal that the war was coming to an end. Addressing the 30 to 40 countries likely to abstain from the resolution, including China, India and South Africa, she noted: “Today each of us has to make a decision to stand in isolation with the oppressor or stand together for peace.”
The U.N. General Assembly then approved a nonbinding resolution Thursday that calls for Russia to end hostilities in Ukraine and withdraw its forces, sending a strong message on the eve of the first anniversary of the invasion that Moscow’s aggression must stop.
The resolution, drafted by Ukraine in consultation with its allies, passed 141-7, with 32 abstentions.
German of the day: Ein Esel schimpft den anderen Langohr. That means “a donkey scolds the other long-eared.”
In other words, the pot is calling the kettle black.
Germany chides allies for delays in delivering tanks to Ukraine – Defence minister expresses disbelief at slow progress by countries that pressed Berlin for Leopard decision.
Germany’s defence minister has voiced his frustration with European partners who spent months pressuring Berlin to supply tanks to Ukraine but have so far failed to deliver any of the heavy armour themselves.
Norway to order 54 new army tanks from Germany – Norway will order 54 new German-made Leopard 2 tanks for its army from the Krauss-Maffei Wegmann Group, and will get an option to buy a further 18 tanks at a later time, the government said on Friday.
The Bundeswehr couldn’t threaten its way out of a paper bag, Vlad. But tanks for the backhanded compliment anyway.
Putin says Russia faces German tanks, just like at Stalingrad, but hints that this time Moscow has nukes – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday leveled another veiled nuclear threat in relation to the war in Ukraine as he ripped into Germany for providing battle tanks to Kyiv, while comparing Russia’s unprovoked invasion of its next-door neighbor to the Soviet Union’s fight against the Nazis during World War II.
Observing Hermann 