German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said military and financial support for Ukraine was of "existential importance" for Europe, defending defense spending commitments as Berlin faces a domestic budget crisis.
Germany is one of the biggest supporters of Ukraine along with the United States. "We will continue this support as long as necessary," Scholz said.
"None of us wants to imagine what even more serious consequences there would be for us if Putin won this war," Katzler emphasized.
The chancellor was addressing MPs following a shock constitutional court ruling earlier this month which blew a huge hole in the government's spending plans.
Germany's top court said the government had flouted a constitutional debt rule that limits new borrowing to 0.35 percent of gross domestic product.
The decision has left the government scrambling to pass a new budget before the end of the year and support much-needed investment in decarbonisation and the modernization of its armed forces.
To quell the immediate crisis, the government plans to lift the constitutional debt rule for the fourth consecutive year.
The so-called debt brake has already been lifted between 2020 and 2022 to deal with crises caused by the coronavirus pandemic and a spike in energy prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year.
Germany has supported households and businesses are managing growing bills with billions of euros in support. But it was not enough to look only at the winter of 2022-2023, when energy prices were high, the German leader specified.
"It was always going to be the winter of 2023-2024," he noted, commenting on an ongoing crisis that could justify lifting the debt brake again.
"Under no circumstances should we give up our support for Ukraine and overcoming the energy crisis," concluded the chancellor. /BGNES
