Overcoming reluctance, Germany promises modern air defense system to Ukraine.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz took many Germans by surprise with his announcement Wednesday, made during an unusually impassioned 50-minute budget speech, that he would send one of Germany’s most modern weapons systems to Ukraine.

For weeks, the chancellor had been accused of dithering on the question of whether to provide heavy weapons for Ukraine. The German public, the political opposition and even members of his own coalition had been growing increasingly restless that for all the announcements about military aid to Ukraine — and a parliamentary vote backing deliveries a month ago — no major weapons systems had actually arrived there.

Now, he was announcing that German would provide Ukraine not just with tracking radar to help the Ukrainian army locate sources of Russian heavy artillery but with the sophisticated IRIS-T air defense system. Read more

@nytimes