Berlin Cuts German MoD's Request for Military Aid to Ukraine by 10 billion Euros for 2026 & 2027

Berlin has reduced the German Ministry of Defense's budget request for military assistance to Ukraine to 18 billion euros for 2026 and 2027 instead of the 28.6 billion requested by the military.

According to the BILD publication, citing an official document from the Federal Ministry of Defense sent to the Bundestag deputies.

According to BILD, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius requested 5.8 billion euros for 2026 and 12.8 billion for 2027. However, the Ministry of Finance and the government approved funding at the level of 9 billion euros per year . Of this, 500 million will come in the form of reimbursements from EU funds.

This means that Pistorius suddenly lacks 10.6 billion euros for partially already promised cooperation programs with the Ukrainian defense industry. Now planned contracts will have to be suspended, and measures to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces will have to be canceled or reduced.

"In order to meet the target of €9 billion, no additional industrial support was allocated to Ukraine in 2026. Contracts concluded in 2026 and financed from 2026 funds were canceled. In addition, activities under contracts concluded in 2026 with payment in 2027 had to be partially canceled or their volume adjusted," the document states.

The Ministry of Defense sent this 464-page document, titled “Preliminary discussions on the 2025 defense budget with the rapporteurs of the Bundestag budget committee on October 6, 2025,” to deputies on August 22.

"Friedrich Merz announced a completely different course, but now he is acting, like his predecessor, against the Minister of Defense. There are no more excuses: the amendments to the Basic Law allow this support to be financed, so nothing needs to be cut from the budget," said Green Party MP Sebastian Schaefer.

Recall that in early September, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced the launch of a new initiative to purchase long-range drones together with the Ukrainian defense industry for the amount of 300 million euros.