The German Government is leading Germany into war against Russia
by Sevim Dagdelen,* Germany
(24 April 2026) (CH-S) It is no small matter when our large neighbour to the north concludes a close arms agreement with the Ukrainian Zelenskyy leadership. This makes Germany a party to the war, as the following article by Sevim Dagdelen shows.
sevimdagdelen.de)
Through the SkyShield agreement and the procurement of ground-based air defence systems, Switzerland became closely linked to the German Federal Ministry of Defence in July 2025.1 The consequences of such agreements are now becoming clear. Germany is increasingly becoming an active party to the war.
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By signing strategic defence agreements with Ukraine, the German government has reached a new level of involvement in the war: Germany is now actively taking on the role of belligerent against Russia – with its own weapons, its own industry and Ukrainian soldiers stationed in Germany.
Ukraine becomes Germany’s premier partner
The German-Ukrainian agreements mark a genuine turning point. For the first time, the German government has entered into a strategic partnership with a country at war. Germany is already by far the largest financial supporter of Ukraine, following the US’s largely withdrawn stance. However, the signed so-called defence agreements with Ukraine take this to a new level. Ukraine is set to become Germany’s premier partner in military and armaments matters.
Bilateral defence alliance instead of multilateralism
The multilateralism constantly invoked by the German government is now giving way to bilateral agreements with Ukraine. The aim is to be able to wage war against Russia together and to act as a tandem to challenge Russia even beyond a possible end to the war. The German government is thus attempting to take the place of the US.
However, this new dimension of armaments cooperation is by no means solely about money. The signed agreement on defence cooperation sets out a clear roadmap for the joint production and procurement of weapon systems, drones and long-range weapons in Ukraine. In doing so, the German government is sidestepping what it sees as the tiresome debate over German weapons being supplied to Ukraine and intended to strike deep into Russia. The joint production of medium- and long-range drones is, in terms of operational objectives, solely a decision for Ukraine.
What was agreed in Berlin is far more significant than the postponed decision on a possible delivery of Taurus cruise missiles. Zelenskyy tellingly called it the “biggest deal of its kind in Europe”.
German-Ukrainian military-industrial complex
Alongside new commitments regarding arms deliveries and the financing of US arms purchases, the agreed integration of the German and Ukrainian arms industries is particularly striking. One must speak of the formation of a German-Ukrainian military-industrial complex under German hegemony. Added to this is the declaration of intent by Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Volodymyr Zelenskyy to repatriate Ukrainian men of military age residing in Germany to Ukraine.
With this bilateral strategic partnership, which is clearly aimed at war with Russia, the German government is fulfilling the dream of German militarists to finally achieve revenge in the East following the defeat against the Soviet Union in 1945. Disguised as “defence cooperation”, nothing less than a policy of systematically challenging Russia is being put into practice.
The joint arms production between Germany and Ukraine poses an existential threat to Russia. The risk of precipitating an apocalypse by effectively declaring war on the nuclear power Russia stems from a mindset that is fatally reminiscent of the policies of the two world wars.
From now on, it is Germany’s war that Ukraine is waging against Russia. This war is being fought primarily with German weapons, German money and also with soldiers from Germany – though they are still Ukrainians – and aims to ruin Russia. A proxy war of the US and NATO has become a German proxy war – with a massively increased risk of direct German involvement in the war.
However, it could prove to be a serious miscalculation to believe that one is protected by NATO. NATO is neither a values-based nor a defence alliance, but an alliance designed to prop up US global hegemony – as both US President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte have recently pointed out. Should Germany come under fire because of its war policy against Russia, one can be almost certain that the US will not lift a finger.
In the end, what remains is the perfidious argument put forward by Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz, that arms aid and joint arms production are about upholding international law. The German government’s silence on Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians, as well as its complicity in the unprovoked, illegal war of aggression waged by the US and Israel against Iran, make any credible talk from Berlin about upholding international law appear as nothing but a farce.
The German government’s fateful decision of 14 April 2026 to actively risk war with Russia exposes the German population to the highest risk. Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s statement that no peace settlement should be concluded “over the heads of Europeans” effectively grants Germany a de facto right of veto over the course of the war against Russia. What in spring 2022 in Istanbul was still Washington and London is now Berlin, with a self-appointed right of veto – in a war that is apparently to be fought to the last Ukrainian.
Social cutbacks at home, resources for the war
The social costs of turning the Bundeswehr into Europe’s largest army are already becoming increasingly apparent. Healthcare faces the threat of drastic cutbacks. Entering the war against Russia goes hand in hand with a social war against its own population.
However, one should not say that the federal government is not also concerned with a social dimension. In the joint German-Ukrainian declaration under the heading “Affordable and social housing”, “cooperation in the creation of affordable social housing whilst ensuring the inclusion of vulnerable groups and the establishment of municipal housing associations, including with German funding” is agreed. It almost seems like a cruel twist of history: whilst in Germany more and more people are facing existential worries due to rising rent and energy costs and there is a shortage of over a million affordable homes, the German government’s focus lies on the “creation of affordable social housing” in Ukraine.
This passage, too, clearly demonstrates that the German government sees itself at war with Russia. Sending as many resources as possible to Ukraine is the overriding priority – whilst the welfare state in Germany is being systematically dismantled.
| * Sevim Dagdelen was a member of the German Bundestag from 2005 to 2025. The politician is the foreign policy spokesperson for the “Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht – Vernunft und Gerechtigkeit” (BSW) group and was chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. The MP was a member of the US Parliamentary Group, the German-Chinese Parliamentary Group and the German-Indian Parliamentary Group. Sevim Dagdelen was a member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly for many years, in which MPs from the member states of the military pact discuss security and defence policy issues. |
Source: https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=149141,16, 16 April 2026
(Translation “Swiss Standpoint”)