The decision was announced after Scholz’s government faced a chorus of calls from within his three-way coalition to beef up military support for Ukraine after France announced it was sending light AMX-10 RC armoured combat vehicles.
Scholz has ramped up defence spending and sent aid and weapons to Ukraine since the invasion, but has, like other Western powers, sometimes hesitated before supplying powerful weapons for fear of risking direct conflict with Russia.
He has also made it clear that he did not want to go it alone on sending heavy weapons to Ukraine and that he would coordinate deliveries with other members of the NATO alliance.
On a visit to London, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Ukraine must be given weapons not only to defend itself but also to liberate areas under Russian occupation.
“We cannot leave any room to doubt our support, and we have to constantly see what more we can do, especially in terms of military support,” she told a briefing alongside her British counterpart James Cleverly.
That includes weapons that “Ukraine needs to free occupied areas and the people who are suffering under Russian terror”, she said.
German politicians had also renewed calls for Berlin to deliver tanks to Ukraine.
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, the head of the parliamentary defence committee and a member of Scholz’s junior coalition partner Free Democrats (FDP), had publicly chided Scholz after the French announcement, saying that “other partner countries are once again leading the way”.
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