The announcement came as Chancellor Olaf Scholz faced pressure over when the government would deliver on previous weapons pledges.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz defended his government’s record on delivering heavy weapons to Ukraine to German lawmakers on Wednesday, promising two more potentially significant donations: an air defense system and a tracking radar to help the Ukrainian army locate sources of Russian heavy artillery.
“This, too, is a decision we have made that ensures Ukraine’s security with the most modern equipment,” Mr. Scholz said during an unusually impassioned speech to Germany’s federal Parliament. The speed and scale of weapons donations to Ukraine has been a persistent source of criticism for Mr. Scholz both from Ukraine and from inside Germany, even as he has spoken of a break with decades of pacifist policy. While saying the air defense systems were among the most sophisticated in the German arsenal and could be deployed to protect whole cities, Mr. Scholz did not immediately specify delivery timelines. In Wednesday’s parliamentary session, Friedrich Merz, the head of the conservative opposition, decried the fact that Germany still had not delivered heavy weapons a month after opposition and government lawmakers had voted to back such deliveries, and mocked Mr.
