Germany’s vice-chancellor apologizes for the delay in supplying arms to Ukraine

Robert Habeck, Germany’s vice-chancellor and economy minister, apologized to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the hesitations in delivering arms to Ukraine from Germany, according to a video recorded during their meeting on Monday in Chernihiv.

Habeck reminded the Ukrainian president about their meeting in 2021 – in “another life,” as Zelensky commented, and Habeck agreed. Two years ago, according to the German vice-chancellor, Zelensky explained that the threat of war was real.

Although there were debates on whether support of Ukraine should include weapons, “Germany was not able or willing to do that at that time. We changed our position, but it took too long and was too late,” Habeck said.

“I feel deeply ashamed that it is all too late, and part of my job was in the last year to help deliver weapons as fast and as many as we could, and this is an ongoing promise,” he emphasized.

As a matter of fact, Habeck’s apologies concern Germany rather than himself. In the middle of the election campaign in the spring of 2021, nearly one year before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Greens party’s leader Habeck raised the issue of arms for Ukraine, reacting to the Russian maneuvers on the Ukrainian border. He was criticized for that even by his parteigenosse Annalena Baerbock – a chancellor candidate at the time and now the foreign minister emphatically calling for military support for Ukraine, according to News in Germany.

Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck has apologized to Zelensky for Germany’s late decision to deliver military equipment to Ukraine.

“We changed our position, but it took too long. I am extremely ashamed that it was too late."

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— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) April 4, 2023

Watch DW for more details related to Habeck’s visit to Ukraine.