Merely a week ago German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock claimed that the country’s armed forces have said it “can no longer supply weapons from its own reserves” to Ukraine. But with Berlin coming under immense pressure from NATO allies, particularly the United States, after Chancellor Olaf Scholz voiced fears of sparking a WW3 nuclear showdown scenario with Russia, Germany’s tune quickly changed.
On Thursday (April 28) lawmakers in the Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of parliament, voted overwhelmingly to approve sending “heavy weapons and complex machinery” to Ukraine. According to national media it passed with 586 votes in favor, 100 against, and seven abstentions.
The bulk of those voting “no” included the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, citing that the move feels close to a “declaration of war.” Senior AfD lawmaker Tino Chrupalla spelled out that it “could make us party to a nuclear war.” Though this view is now being dismissed as merely excuse-making by the “far-right,” Chancellor Scholz himself said the same thing in a Spiegel interview published last Friday (April 22)…
“We need to do everything to avoid a direct military confrontation between NATO and a heavily armed superpower such as Russia, a nuclear power,” the chancellor said at the time. “I will do everything to avoid an escalation that could lead to World War III – there can be no nuclear war.”
