The German parliament voted Thursday to introduce an annual national “veterans' day” to honor people who have served in the military, which often has struggled to gain recognition in the country. The proposal was drawn up by the parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-party governing coalition together with the main opposition conservative bloc, and was approved by nearly all parties in the Bundestag, parliament's lower house. It says a “veterans' day” should be celebrated “publicly and visibly” every June 15.
The German armed forces (Bundeswehr) need approximately 6.5 billion euros ($7.1 billion) more than earmarked for 2025, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Thursday.
BERLIN/MOSCOW (Reuters) -Germany, Britain and other European countries said on Tuesday they had no plans to send ground troops to Ukraine, after France hinted at the possibility, and the Kremlin warned that any such move would inevitably lead to conflict between Russia and NATO. French President Emmanuel Macron had said on Monday that Western allies should exclude no options in seeking to avert a Russian victory in Ukraine, though he stressed there was no consensus at this stage. His comments, made at a hastily convened meeting of European leaders in Paris on ways to boost support for Kyiv, come amid battlefield gains by Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces in eastern Ukraine and growing shortages of ammunition and manpower on the Ukrainian side.
Guy Stern, who has died aged 101, was a German-born member of the Ritchie Boys, an American Military Intelligence interrogation unit, in the Second World War.