OREANDA-NEWS Shares of the German defense concern Rheinmetall fell sharply on Monday after reports surfaced about the possible termination of military assistance to Ukraine from Berlin. This is reported by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

According to the newspaper, the value of one paper lost 4.5 percent after the publication of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung that Germany does not have new funds to spend on the Ukrainian military. At the same time, since the beginning of the year, Rheinmetall shares have almost doubled in price, by 89 percent, as the concern received a significant part of orders from the German government for the production of military equipment and ammunition for Ukraine. They are also being supplied as part of a "circular exchange organized by the German government" — in particular, new Leopard 2A4 tanks and Buffel armored recovery vehicles are being transferred to the Czech Republic in exchange for equipment sent to Kiev.

Rheinmetall has accumulated a record order book worth 48.6 billion euros by this summer. From January to June, the company's operating profit almost doubled, reaching 404 million euros.

As TASS reminds, Germany is the second largest supplier of weapons to Ukraine after the United States. In connection with the publication, the German Ministry of Finance noted that bilateral assistance to Ukraine from Germany will be partially transferred to international programs in the future, while allowing consideration of providing additional funds to Kiev in the short term.