Germany upended years of policy and agreed to supply Kyiv with weapons and consider ways to shut out Russia from the SWIFT financial messaging system, signalling the depth of outrage in Berlin at President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
In his first international crisis, Chancellor Olaf Scholz signed off on providing Ukraine with 500 Stinger surface-to-air missiles and 1,000 anti-tank weapons from German stockpiles. His decision sets aside traditional German restraint on arms exports to war zones, a policy rooted in the country's legacy of World War II aggression.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine marks a turning point, according to Scholz in a statement announcing the decision. In this situation, it is our duty to do our best to help Ukraine defend itself against Vladimir Putin's invading army. Scholz's move, coupled with an escalation of rhetoric against Putin, came shortly after the government said it supplied 400 German-made rocket propelled grenades to Ukraine via the Netherlands, along with 14 armored personnel carriers, 10,000 tons of fuel via Poland and nine howitzers from the former East German army in Estonia.
Amid intense trans-Atlantic diplomacy to marshal a united U.S. European response ahead of Russia's invasion, Germany is shifting ground after initially refusing to send lethal military aid to Ukraine and offering 5,000 helmets instead.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, who held talks with Scholz in Berlin earlier Saturday, praised Germany's new stance.
He said that you can't win a war with helmets alone, he said at a news conference after returning to Vilnius. It is a breakthrough for this key European state and that is something we need to appreciate. Scholz, a Social Democrat who took office in December, aligned with his Green coalition partners who hold the Foreign Ministry in Berlin.
After the shameless attack by Russia, Ukraine must be able to defend itself, said Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck in a separate statement.
Germany reluctance to expel Russia from SWIFT, a system used for trillions of dollars worth of transactions between thousands of banks around the world, has crumbled on Saturday. U.S. President Joe Biden singled out European resistance to such a move on Thursday.
Germany is working flat out on how to limit the collateral damage from SWIFT in such a way that affects the right people, Baerbock and Habeck said. We need a targeted and functional restriction of SWIFT. Nauseda said he and Scholz discussed cutting Russia off of SWIFT.
The Lithuanian leader said that Germany is making preparations on how to compensate for the secondary effects of this decision.