Ukraine has not yet received promised German missiles

Defects in old weapons as defence minister says reserves have run out and more will have to be made

GERMANY has failed to deliver its pledge to provide arms to Ukraine, ministers have said, amid reports weapons have been held up by red tape and are too old to be used.

Berlin has supplied just a fifth of the missiles it promised in response to the Russian invasion with the lack of weapons causing increasing frustration inside Ukraine.

The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC), a diaspora organisation which is helping coordinate supplies to the country, said officials there have complained of “very little if anything” currently coming from Germany in the way of meaningful support.

Oleksiy Reznikov, the Ukrainian defence minister, told UWC president Paul Grob yesterday that most of the lethal aid had failed to arrive as it was “caught up in bureaucracy”.

“The Germans made a very important historic decision that they would supply arms and military support to Ukraine,” said Mr Grob.

“When we meet with the German foreign ministry they keep saying it’s coming, but the Ukrainians tell us nothing is coming. That’s critical.”

Berlin failed to deny German press reports that it had delivered just 500 Cold War-era Strela anti-aircraft missiles, despite having promised 2,700.

Christine Lambrecht, the defence minister said at the weekend that the German army’s reserves of weaponry “have been exhausted” and more would have to be sought from manufacturers.

Meanwhile Die Welt has reported that many of the rockets are no longer usable because they have lain in storage for so long.

Mr Grob said: “I was in communication with the Ukrainian minister of defence this morning and the message is very, very clear.

“They have lots of declarations of support but are getting very little.

“It’s barely trickling in and they are running out of supplies.”

He said Ukraine’s forces badly needed “sophisticated anti-aircraft equipment, because that’s where Russia is launching its air terror campaign”.

According to a statement made by the German defence ministry in January, the Strela missiles were withdrawn from service in 2012 due to small fractures being identified in the munitions.

Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s foreign minister, said on Wednesday: “We don’t have enough. We’re doing everything we can. If we could perform magic, if we could deliver more weapons, we would.”

However Mr Grob suggested that the weaponry Germany was able to send was being delayed by red tape such as purchase orders.

Andrij Melnyk, the Ukrainian ambassador to Berlin, aired his disappointment at the weekend, describing Germany’s response as “fearful, insecure, indecisive and shocked”.

“In Berlin, politicians praise the bravery of the Ukranians. That drives me crazy. What we need are three things: weapons, weapons and weapons,” Mr Melnyk told General Anzeiger.

This comes after Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, made a turnaround on strategic policy in February when he authorised the delivery of deadly weaponry to Ukraine. For decades it had been German policy never to deliver arms to war zones.

An initial supply of 1,000 rocket propelled grenades and 500 Stinger air defence missiles was promised. The Strela missiles were the central part of a second delivery pledged in early March.

Germany’s arms shipments are dwarfed by those of the US, which this week announced a further $800million (£607 million) in military aid to Kyiv, which included 2,000 Javelin missiles and thousands of anti-tank weapons.

While western Ukraine, where military supplies enter the country, has suffered some air strikes in recent days, it is largely free of Russian troops.

Mr Grob said that despite a recent declaration by Moscow to target supply lines, the main problem was the availability of supplies themselves, not getting them to the battlefield.

He said that since the US’s “extremely helpful” delivery of thousands of missiles earlier in the conflict, very little had since been forthcoming. “The readout from Kyiv is that we need to get this stuff into Ukraine ASAP,” he said.