Both France and Germany are failing to provide Ukraine with enough military assistance to fight Russia, a senior member of the Bundestag, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, has told Politico.
Strack-Zimmermann chairs the defense committee in the German parliament and is also the leading candidate from the Free Democratic Party in the upcoming European Parliament election.
She claimed that France is “doing relatively little” to help Ukraine, unlike Poland and Germany, Politico reported on Wednesday.
“What I expect is that France, precisely because it is an important nation, not only – and I don’t mean this in a negative way – makes big speeches, but also follows up its words with action,” she told the news outlet.
French President Emmanuel Macron caused a diplomatic storm in February, when he refused to rule out NATO member states sending their own troops to Ukraine. The purported policy of “strategic ambiguity” is meant to keep Russia guessing about the intentions of the US-led military bloc and the lengths it is willing to go to in support of Kiev.
While Strack-Zimmermann acknowledged Germany’s generosity in backing Ukraine, she said Chancellor Olaf Scholz was not going far enough, and specifically mentioned his refusal to supply Taurus mid-range missiles.
London and Paris have supplied similar weapons to Ukraine, but Berlin declined to follow suit. Scholz said he was not prepared to have German military specialists prepare Ukrainian strikes the way the UK and France do. Strack-Zimmermann said she hoped that the chancellor would reconsider his policy “if the situation changes.”
“And I hope that when the situation changes, he will realize that he made a big mistake not giving the green light a year ago. So in that respect, hope dies last,” she added.
The MP also criticized Scholz for campaigning ahead of the EU election by depicting himself as a “peace chancellor.”
“He says, ‘Gosh, Germany is doing so much compared to the others. Now it’s the others’ turn.’ But we can’t afford to have this discussion. We can only do it together,” she argued.
Strack-Zimmermann’s party is in a tripartite coalition with Scholz’s Social Democrats and the Greens. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, a prominent figure in the latter, paid a surprise visit to Kiev this week, when she called for Western nations to ramp up their supply of arms to Ukraine.
Moscow considers the conflict to be a proxy war against Russia by the US and its allies.