The Bundeswehr continues to support the state of Berlin in helping war refugees from Ukraine. The aid mission of 80 soldiers will be extended by one month until the end of April. A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Defense told the Tagesspiegel. The administrative assistance requested by the Berlin Senate was approved on Thursday, he said.
The ministry only allowed the 80 soldiers to be deployed in mid-March, and since then they have been used, for example, to register war refugees in the arrival center at the former Tegel Airport. The soldiers had been withdrawn from the deployment contingent for corona aid in Berlin.
The “Corona Aid Contingent”, in which up to 20,000 soldiers were deployed at the same time in Germany at the peak of the Corona aid in February 2021, was officially dissolved on Thursday. Most recently, 200 soldiers were still working in health facilities, hospitals and vaccination centers.
In March, Berlin had to fight for the deployment of soldiers in refugee aid. In an internal meeting with representatives of the Senate and the aid organizations, the Berlin State Command of the Bundeswehr had initially signaled that no soldiers could currently be deployed due to the refugee situation. A week later we got the green light.
No permanent Bundeswehr aid
Nevertheless, Berlin cannot permanently rely on Bundeswehr help, according to military circles. Reference is made, for example, to the NATO Response Force, which the Bundeswehr has to increase on the eastern flank. Because of the Corona aid mission, the Bundeswehr complained that there was a massive backlog of so-called keeping in practice. The task now is to restore the operational readiness of the Bundeswehr and to make up for training deficits.
[Der tägliche Nachrichtenüberblick aus der Hauptstadt: Schon rund 57.000 Leser:innen informieren sich zweimal täglich mit unseren kompakten überregionalen Newslettern. Melden Sie sich jetzt kostenlos hier an.]
The strike force base of the Bundeswehr now pointed out that because of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, “the necessary concentration on the core tasks of the Bundeswehr leaves hardly any leeway for the permanent provision of a contingent of assistance”. Administrative assistance is now about an “orderly return to the so-called standard procedure”.
“The task of the Bundeswehr is external security”
In April, the Bundeswehr will again decide on administrative assistance measures after examining individual cases and depending on the availability of the required forces and resources. The stipulation is that “the fulfillment of the order by the armed forces is not restricted”.
Lieutenant General Martin Schelleis said in his function as National Territorial Commander: “The task of the Bundeswehr is external security, we have to constantly prepare ourselves professionally for this.” The amount of training and exercise that has to be continuously carried out for this purpose is often underestimated.
