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GERMANY AND UKRAINE

Germany insists it won’t give Ukraine long-range missiles

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz doubled down Friday on Berlin's refusal to send long-range missiles to Ukraine, even as other Western powers discussed allowing Kyiv more freedom to use such weapons.

Published: 14 September 2024 10:34 CEST

“Germany has made a clear decision about what we will do and what we will not do. This decision will not change,” Scholz said when asked about the issue at a press conference.

The leaders of the United States and Britain were due to meet Friday in Washington on whether to let Kyiv fire Western-provided long-range missiles into Russia — an option that has sent tensions soaring with Moscow.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s visit to President Joe Biden comes with Kyiv increasingly pushing for permission to use the weapons, and to secure Western help in shooting down Russian missiles and drones.

But Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that giving Ukraine the green light to use long-range weapons would mean NATO was “at war” with Moscow.

The United States and Britain have provided Ukraine with ATACMS and Storm Shadow long-range missiles respectively.

However, Germany has repeatedly refused to send Kyiv its long-range Taurus missiles, over fears of escalating the conflict.

When asked earlier Friday about the talks in Washington, Scholz’s spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said that “the weapons the US and Britain are now discussing” have a longer range than anything Germany had supplied.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said that what the United States and Britain agree “remains their business”, and added allowing Ukraine to strike targets in Russia would be “fully in line with international law”.

Germany has been the second-largest contributor of military aid to Ukraine after the United States, but plans to halve its budget for that aid next year.

Scholz has been facing domestic pressure over the issue, with parties opposed to Berlin’s support for Kyiv making major gains at key regional elections in early September.

However, the government has insisted it is “fully committed” to supporting Ukraine “for as long as necessary”.

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Thousands of jobs have already been lost in the region, where wind farms now rise near abandoned open-pit mines and many people look with dread towards 2038, the deadline for the “coal exit”.

Their fears help explain the strong local support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which does not just rail against migrants but also rejects the green energy push and questions man-made climate change.

At local elections held in Spremberg in June, the AfD scored 39.3 percent – an omen ahead of regional elections next Sunday in the state of Brandenburg, which polls suggest it could win.

Lignite, or brown coal, may be a climate killer, but since the 19th century it has been key to the identity of the Lusatia industrial region on the Polish border, known as the Lausitz in German.

“Thousands of people here have been linked to coal their whole working lives,” said the town’s mayor, Christine Herntier, an independent who has held the post for a decade.

“We are proud of our tradition,” said Herntier, 67, pointing to a huge map on her office wall of the Schwarze Pumpe plant and its surrounding industrial complex.

Most people in Spremberg, population 25,000, have grudgingly accepted the coal phase-out plan, under which the government has earmarked billions for structural transition plans, she said.

But, she added, ahead of the state election the winding down of coal “is still a big issue”.

‘Anger over wind farm’

Michael Hanko, the AfD’s top representative in Spremberg, said he is certain that the looming demise of the lignite industry is “one of the main reasons” residents are voting for his party.

“I don’t think the government has really got them on board with this whole prescribed transformation, saying that we now have to do everything with renewable energies,” Hanko said.

Michael Hanko, the AfD (Alternative for Germany) top candidate, in Spremberg, eastern Germany on, September 9, 2024. Photo by Femke COLBORNE / AFP

The AfD, founded about a decade ago, scored a triumph earlier this month when it won an election in the eastern state of Thuringia and came a close second in Saxony.

It now also has a good chance of winning in Brandenburg, the state that surrounds Berlin, where it is polling narrowly in first place at around 27 percent.

When the German government decided five years ago to phase out coal, it pledged around €40 billion to help coal regions adapt, with €17 billion for the Lausitz alone.

Much of the money is intended to flow into developing the renewables and hydrogen sectors, helping the region maintain its identity as an energy hub.

But residents complain the investment has been too slow to materialise and is flowing into the wrong places.

In Spremberg, plans to extend a nearby wind park have caused outrage among some locals, who fear it will be a threat to 150-year-old trees, a protected swallow species and drinking water.

‘Something different’

Coal has long been synonymous with the Lausitz region, which takes in parts of Brandenburg and Saxony and a small strip of Poland, and where lignite was discovered in the late 18th century.

But the industry all but collapsed after German reunification in 1990, when most of the region’s open pit mines were shut down and thousands of jobs vanished.

Today, only around 8,000 people are employed in the lignite industry across the Lausitz, with 4,500 of them in Brandenburg, though the industry is still one of the largest private employers in the state and coal remains a strong part of the region’s identity.

Already weary from the problems caused by reunification, people in the region have felt “overwhelmed” by recent global challenges, said Lars Katzmarek, a board member of the Pro-Lausitz campaign group.

Lars Katzmarek, board member of the Pro-Lausitz campaign group. Photo by Femke COLBORNE / AFP

“The coronavirus, the energy crisis, the Ukraine war – these are all very difficult things that people still haven’t fully digested… and perhaps at some point they just close their ears,” he said.

On a rainy morning in Spremberg, Joachim Paschke, 81, who used to work in mechanical engineering and welding, was buying bread rolls in the bakery opposite the town hall.

“I’m definitely not an AfD supporter but I can understand people who are,” he said.

“The established parties have nothing concrete and the AfD is offering something different. People want change.”

By Femke COLBORNE