Ukraine war briefing: Germany to halve military aid to Kyiv, draft budget reportedly shows

We’ll fight on regardless of Washington support, says Ukrainian defence minister; US jails Russian military parts smuggler. What we know on day 876

Germany plans to halve its military aid to Ukraine in 2025, to €4bn, despite concerns over continued US support, according to a draft budget seen by Reuters. Instead the German government hopes Ukraine will be able to meet the bulk of its military needs with $50bn in loans from proceeds of frozen Russian assets approved by the G7, and that funds earmarked for armaments will not be fully used. “Ukraine’s financing is secured for the foreseeable future thanks to European instruments and the G7 loans,” the German finance minister, Christian Lindner, said on Wednesday. Germany has faced criticism for repeatedly missing a Nato target of spending 2% of its GDP on defence, but aims to comply by 2025.

Trump’s choice of JD Vance as his running mate is “bad for us but it’s terrible news for [Ukraine]”, a senior European diplomat in Washington told the Guardian’s Andrew Roth. “[Vance] is not our ally.” “Senator Vance was one of the leading opponents of the new assistance package to Ukraine last spring and has expressed indifference to what happens in that war,” said Michael McFaul, director at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and a former ambassador to Russia.

Ukraine’s defence minister said it would find a way to battle Russia’s invading forces even if Donald Trump won a second term. Speaking remotely to the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, Rustem Umerov said: “We believe in US leadership, and we believe America wants its partners and allies to be strong as well. At this stage, we will focus on the battlefield,” Umerov said. “Whatever the outcome [of the US elections], we will find solutions.”

Umerov pushed back against the Biden administration’s restrictions on Ukraine firing US weapons into Russia. Biden suggested at the Nato summit that Ukraine might use them to hit Moscow. Umerov said Ukraine couldn’t stop Russian strikes on its own cities and infrastructure unless it could hit the airbases and other military sites in Russia from which the strikes come. “We want to say it loudly: we are focusing on military targets, so that they are not able to hit the civilians [in Ukraine].” Umerov also said it was “within our goals” to take back the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant from the Russians.

A Russian man has been jailed for three years in the US for smuggling American-made military-grade microelectronics to Russia. Maxim Marchenko, 52, who pleaded guilty, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release after he gets out, the justice department said. Marchenko and two Russian co-conspirators were accused of using shell companies to conceal fraudulent procurement of OLED micro-displays used in rifle scopes, night-vision goggles, thermal optics and other weapons systems. The conspirators claimed they were for medical electron microscopes in China and Hong Kong.

Russia is ready to work with any US leader willing to engage in “equitable, mutually respectful dialogue”, Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday. The Russian foreign minister welcomed the stance on Ukraine of JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential candidate. Vance wants to cut off American military support for Ukraine’s fight back against Russia, saying it has no chance of regaining all its territory.

Ukraine and Russia have exchanged 95 prisoners of war each. Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine’s president, and the Russian defence ministry reported the exchange on Wednesday. The swap was the 54th since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Estonia and Lithuania will no longer allow Belarus-registered cars to enter through checkpoints on their borders with Russia or Belarus because of EU sanctions. “Belarus is directly contributing to and supporting Russia’s aggression in Ukraine,” said the Estonian foreign minister, Margus Tsahkna. Latvia announced a similar ban this week. The bans do not apply to diplomatic cars. The three countries, as well as Poland, Finland and Norway, last year banned Russian-registered cars from entering their territory.

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