BERLIN (Reuters) – The German government has doubled its arms exports to Ukraine this year and halved them to Israel compared to 2023, data from the economy ministry showed on Wednesday.
Being the main recipient country, Ukraine will have received weapons and other military equipment worth 8.1 billion euros ($8.48 billion), up from 4.4 billion euros last year.
Germany has so far approved arms exports worth 13.2 billion euros this year, according to provisional data from the ministry running until Dec. 17.
Export approvals for Israel have dropped to 161 million euros, coinciding with a legal challenge by human rights groups concerned about the potential use of weapons in the Gaza war.
Last year, Germany approved arms exports to Israel worth 326.5 million euros, including military equipment and war weapons, a 10-fold increase from 2022, according to data from the economy ministry, which approves export licences.
Arms exports are always subject to a case-by-case review by the government. Deliveries worth 1.2 billion euros were approved for Singapore and just under 559 million euros for Algeria. Turkey is worth 230 million euros.
($1 = 0.9547 euros)
(Reporting by Christian Kraemer, writing by Maria Martinez; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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