Following earnest discussions between members of NATO’s Ukraine Defence Contact Group last week, the new German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, announced that instead of sending Germany’s tanks to Ukraine, he was going to count them instead. Some German analysts legitimately believe supplying tanks to Ukraine might lead to nuclear war with Russia. The problems with Germany’s military go deeper and are much harder to solve. Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, Germany’s military chief, General Alfons Mais, publicly bemoaned what he saw as the hopeless neglect and under-resourcing of the armed forces he commanded. Read more: US military spending in Ukraine reached nearly $50 billion in 2022 – but no amount of money alone is enough to end the war

Source: New York Times January 24, 2023 00:20 UTC