Berlin plans to decrease financial aid to Ukraine as conservative politicians complain of money being given to refugees.
ADVERTISEMENTWhile a memorial for Ukraine in front of the Russian embassy in Berlin serves as a constant reminder of the war, some Ukrainians say they are experiencing less support now compared to the start of the full-scale invasion of their country.
Iryna Shulikina, who heads a Ukrainian group in Berlin, says she has noticed a drop in donations.
“After two and a half years, somehow people increasingly want to distance themselves from the suffering and pain caused by the war, and help has definitely decreased,” said Iryna Shulikina, the chairwoman of Vitsche.
A survey released in January found a decrease in support for Ukraine joining the EU and NATO.
Another survey released in June found 42 percent believed Germany had done too much for Ukrainian refugees.
Last month, a politician with the sister party of the Christian Democrats told a newspaper that unemployed Ukrainians should return to Ukraine.
And some politicians with the Christian Democrats have complained about the amount of money Ukrainians are getting from the government - and that not enough of them are working.
Now Kyiv is also facing the risk of a decrease in financial support.
Germany is planning on cutting in half the aid in its budget for Ukraine from €8 billion this year to €4 billion in 2025, expecting the country’s needs to be met by money from the G7 and Europe.
Roderich Kiesewetter of the Christian Democrats who sits on the parliamentary foreign affairs committee told Euronews the decrease was “scandalous.”
He said Germany must provide more resources for Ukraine and the goal must be to restore the country’s borders to what they were in 1991.
“The German government is thus losing credibility as a supporter and weakening the security agreement with Ukraine of February 2024 instead of assuming more of the burden and investing more in European security, especially in view of the recent developments in the USA,” Kiesewetter stated in an emailed response.
Criticism of reduction spans entire political spectrum
Anton Hofreiter, an MP with the Greens who heads the EU affairs committee in the Bundestag, says Germany must maintain its aid for Ukraine and believes that the full €8 billion will eventually be allocated by the time its approved in the Bundestag.
“It’sa problem on a symbolic level because it initially looks as though Germany is halving its financial support for Ukraine. In the end, I’m sure we will not do this but at the moment it looks like Germany will do it and that’s a problem,” said Hofreiter.
Shulikina said she feels Germans are misperceiving the war as something not connected to the their lives.
ADVERTISEMENT“Germany has to understand that because… war seems not reachable, but war is literally next door and Germany is not an island somewhere in the middle of nowhere, we are so much connected here to each other in Europe,” said Shulikina.
Germany has boosted defence spending for itself, and says the increase will continue in the coming years, although it is facing criticism that more needs to be spent.