Germany’s Aid to Ukraine Comes Under New Strain

BERLIN — With severe clashes over the budget and increasing evidence that Ukraine was behind the blowing up of natural gas pipelines between Russia and Germany, the German government has come under increasing pressure at home to roll back its support for Ukraine and push harder for negotiations to try to end its war with Russia.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been quick to try to allay fears that Berlin will diminish its aid. Speaking on Wednesday in Moldova, he insisted that “Germany will not let up in its support for Ukraine” for “as long as necessary,” and would remain, he said, “Ukraine’s biggest national supporter in Europe.”

But his three-party coalition government is increasingly unpopular and facing critical state elections in September, where parties on both the far left and far right, which have called for an end to military assistance to Kyiv, are expected to do well.

The primary burden on the government, which can seem paralyzed in making major financial decisions, is the constitutional requirement to keep new budget debt to no more than 0.35 percent of GDP.

But the government also faces a potential embarrassment if the prosecutor general charges any Ukrainian officials with responsibility for blowing up three of the four Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany in 2022.

The government has unsuccessfully sought the arrest of a Ukrainian diver who had been living in Poland, prompting suggestions that the Polish government, which strongly opposed Germany’s decision to build the pipelines, might also have aided the effort to destroy them. The suspicions have already increased tensions with Poland, with whom Germany has a difficult relationship, and raised questions about Germany’s unconditional support for Ukraine.