Germany to help procure drones for Ukraine, Pistorius says

BERLIN – Germany will announce a new effort to facilitate joint procurement of its drones on behalf of Ukraine, along with other measures to aid Kyiv in its defense against Russia’s invasion, the German Defense Minister said.

Speaking in Alaska at the onset of NATO’s large-scale Arctic Defender drills, Boris Pistorius announced that Germany would propose a joint procurement scheme at the alliance’s summit this week in Washington, D.C.

The summit, marking the alliance’s 75-year anniversary, is expected be dominated by talk about countering the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.

The German defense minister said he expected the summit to result in the formal announcement of a command in the German city of Wiesbaden to coordinate the provision of military material and training to the Ukrainian armed forces. Germany will be “represented at a high level in the leadership,” he said Monday.

The new command, the name of which is still being debated, will have a staff of 700 people, the U.S. State Department has announced . NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stressed that “these efforts do not make NATO party to the conflict.”

Russian state media and government officials have repeatedly said they consider the war in Ukraine a conflict between their country and NATO as a whole and the U.S. specifically due to their crucial support of Kyiv.

Pistorius also announced that Germany will buy “tens of thousands of rounds” of armaments this year through the Czech munitions initiative. He pledged to continue the military support of Ukraine more broadly, noting that the third German-donated patriot system had recently arrived in the eastern European country and was already operationally deployed.

In Washington, Germany will present a plan for NATO to buy drones “from German industry” on behalf of the Ukrainian armed forces, Pistorius said. This proposal would serve as “a foundation for our partners for the joint procurement of drones of all kinds,” he said while speaking to the press in Fairbanks.

According to the German government , the country has already provided 537 surveillance drones to Ukraine, mostly VECTOR and RQ-35 HEIDRUN models. The proposed initiative would encourage NATO to jointly procure these and other German-made drones on Kyiv’s behalf.

As of the end of April, Germany had provided a total of €10.2 billion ($11.03 billion) in military goods to Ukraine since the onset of the invasion, putting it second only to the U.S. on the list of Kyiv’s most dedicated supporters. In 2024 alone, the government in Berlin has already authorized the export of €4.88 billion in armaments to Ukraine, contributing to record military export volumes .

Linus Höller is Defense News' Europe correspondent and OSINT investigator. He reports on the arms deals, sanctions, and geopolitics shaping Europe and the world. He holds master’s degrees in WMD nonproliferation, terrorism studies, and international relations, and works in four languages: English, German, Russian, and Spanish.

柏林——德国国防部长表示，德国将宣布一项新的举措，以促进其代表乌克兰联合采购无人机，并采取其他措施帮助基辅抵御俄罗斯的入侵。

在北约大规模“北极卫士”演习开始之际，鲍里斯·皮斯托瑞斯在阿拉斯加发表讲话，宣布德国将在本周于华盛顿特区举行的北约峰会上提出一项联合采购方案。

此次峰会是该联盟成立 75 周年纪念，预计会议将主要讨论如何应对俄罗斯在乌克兰的侵略战争。

德国国防部长表示，他预计此次峰会将正式宣布在德国威斯巴登设立一个指挥部，负责协调向乌克兰武装部队提供军事物资和训练。他周一表示，德国将在领导层中“占据重要席位”。

美国国务院宣布，这个新成立的司令部（名称仍在商议中）将拥有700名工作人员。北约秘书长延斯·斯托尔滕贝格强调，“这些努力并不意味着北约卷入冲突。”

俄罗斯国家媒体和政府官员一再表示，他们认为乌克兰战争是俄罗斯与北约整体以及美国之间的冲突，因为美国对基辅提供了至关重要的支持。

皮斯托瑞斯还宣布，德国今年将通过捷克军火倡议购买“数万发”弹药。他承诺将继续扩大对乌克兰的军事支持，并指出德国捐赠的第三套“爱国者”防空导弹系统已于近日运抵乌克兰并投入使用。

皮斯托瑞斯表示，德国将在华盛顿提出一项计划，由北约代表乌克兰武装部队“从德国工业界”购买无人机。他在费尔班克斯向媒体表示，这项提议将“为我们的合作伙伴联合采购各类无人机奠定基础”。

据德国政府称，德国已向乌克兰提供了537架侦察无人机，其中大部分是VECTOR和RQ-35 HEIDRUN型号。这项提议将鼓励北约代表基辅联合采购这些以及其他德国制造的无人机。

截至4月底，自入侵乌克兰以来，德国已向乌克兰提供了总计102亿欧元（110.3亿美元）的军事物资，在乌克兰最坚定的支持者名单中仅次于美国。仅在2024年，柏林政府就已批准向乌克兰出口价值48.8亿欧元的武器装备，这将使德国的军事出口额创下历史新高。

林努斯·霍勒是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者和开源情报调查员。他报道影响欧洲乃至全球的军火交易、制裁和地缘政治。他拥有大规模杀伤性武器不扩散、恐怖主义研究和国际关系三个硕士学位，并精通英语、德语、俄语和西班牙语四种语言。