NATO firmly expects a Russian invasion of Ukraine. They are trying desperately to organize their defense there. Civilians can be trained to use weapons – even children are prepared for war (eXXpress reported). The government in Kiev has already received several hundred tons of weapons and ammunition. The country also asked for a contribution from Germany. The military was to be reinforced with 12,000 anti-tank missiles. But Germany has to wave it off in embarrassment. The easy-to-use “Milan” system is no longer used in the Bundeswehr. Existing system parts are no longer usable and are therefore being recycled or discarded. Broke saved.
Milan stands for “Missile d’Infanterie léger antichar”, a surface-to-surface guided missile system from German-French production for combating armored vehicles. The Bundeswehr has already gained experience in training fighters from other nations on the system: Kurdish Peshmerga were guests in 2014 and were trained for use with Milan against the terrorist militia “Islamic State”, reports “Spiegel”.
In Germany, the Milan system is to be gradually replaced by the more modern successor system, Mells, over the coming years. reports the Bundeswehr itself on their website. But this system, which has a so-called fire-and-forget targeting technique, “is just getting to the troops,” it said. Even with the new weapon, the Bundeswehr could probably not support the Ukrainian military.
Did we say “even if Germany wanted to”? Exactly, there was something. Berlin doesn’t want it at all.
The federal government continues to refuse the delivery of lethal weapons to Ukraine. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) said that intensive checks are currently being carried out as to whether the Ukrainian army can be supplied with further protective equipment such as the 5,000 helmets that Berlin had already promised. In addition, Germany has increased its payments to an aid fund set up by NATO for better equipment for the Ukrainian army by another million euros.
