Plans by German leaders to introduce national service have been shelved and replaced with a new scheme called The Declaration of Willingness. All 18-year old-men will undergo physical tests and fill a questionnaire about their willingness to be called for war if the occasion arises. The German Chancellor previously planned to increase the numbers of personnel of the Bundeswahr from the current 182,000 to up 20 260,000 active soldier sand 200,000 reservists, but plans have now changed to tentively raise the numbers via volunteers.
EU High Representative Kaja Kallas was in Berlin last week holdings talks with German Ministers over Ukraine and European defence issues. She thanked Germany for increasing its support to Ukraine with up to €11.5 billion allocated to Ukraine next year. She added that Ukraine needs more funding next year and the EU will keep increasing its financial support and its sanctions to put further pressure on Russia. Economic pressure is aimed to force Russia run out of money and eventually lose the war. She also reiterated that funding Ukraine would frozen Russian assets is preferable. Belgium is currently blocking the release of frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s war effort and reconstruction.
Deputy President Commissioner Kaja Kallas also highlighted that drone incursions into Europe are becoming a daily occurrence and said that we can not accept this as the new normal. The High Representative said that EU member states need to work together systematically to counter hybrid threats. More coordination between EU member states is needed to facilitate defence measures including with regard to troop movements in Europe and the pooling of resources. The EU is currently in discussions together with NATO to create drone walls systems against Russian drone incursions into European borders amongst other measures.
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