German foreign minister proposes 30 to 40 billion euros in bilateral arms funding for Ukraine
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told NATO counterparts at their Helsingborg meeting on Friday that allies should add at least 30 to 40 billion euros in bilateral pledges on top of the existing EU credit for Ukraine. The EU package provides 90 billion euros over two years, but of the 45 billion for 2026 only about 30 billion is available for arms procurement, against an estimated need of up to 70 billion. President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the EU credit lets Kyiv order only 60 percent of what its own industry can build.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has proposed that NATO allies pledge an additional 30 to 40 billion euros in bilateral funding for Ukraine, on top of the European Union's existing credit line. Speaking to reporters after a NATO foreign ministers' working session in Helsingborg, Sweden, on Friday, Wadephul said he had urged colleagues to add "at least the same sum again, bilaterally" to the EU package.
The EU credit provides 90 billion euros for Kyiv over the next two years, or 45 billion a year. Of this year's 45 billion, about 30 billion is available for military procurement, but officials in Brussels and Berlin estimate Ukraine could need up to 70 billion euros for defense -- the gap Wadephul's initiative is meant to close. As he did at his first NATO meeting as foreign minister in Antalya a year ago, where he backed the alliance's spending target of 5 percent of GDP -- 3.5 percent for defense and 1.5 percent for defense-related infrastructure -- Wadephul framed the move as proof to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Germany is ready to take on more responsibility.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has argued the headline figure is misleading. "We speak of 90 billion and say this amount covers everything. That is false," he told Reuters, saying the credit allows Kyiv to order only about 60 percent of the weapons its own industry can produce. By his account Ukraine is currently building around 1,000 interceptor drones a day against Russian unmanned aircraft despite having the capacity for 2,000, and its defense industry could produce twice what is currently budgeted.
Ukraine's forces have grown markedly more self-reliant: the share of domestically procured weapons, equipment and ammunition rose to 82 percent in 2025 from 46 percent a year earlier, cutting imported military goods to 18 percent, while production capacity has expanded fiftyfold since Russia's full-scale invasion. More than 40 percent of the weapons used at the front are now developed at home. Zelensky has said the first tranche of EU money, expected in mid-June, will be channelled into the domestic arms industry.