A Secret Special Task Force Has Been Established In Germany To Provide Military Aid To Ukraine

The unit is speeding up weapons procurement for Kyiv.

The Financial Times reports that a small, classified unit within the German Ministry of Defense is responsible for procuring weapons for Ukraine. The unit is called Sonderstab Ukraine—the Special Staff for Ukraine—and some of the publication’s sources describe it as a “guerrilla unit” within the German military bureaucracy.

The unit remains small, with fewer than 20 people on staff. The process was simple: Ukraine provided a list of what it needed, and Berlin footed the bill.

“There’s a startup atmosphere there. They have a very deep understanding of the systems: what works, and what’s overrated, flashy nonsense,” said a person familiar with the team’s work.

According to the FT, the unit is located in a wing of the Ministry of Defense equipped to meet the strictest security requirements. One person familiar with its operations described the team as “incredibly atypical for Germany.”

Sonderstab Ukraine has become one of the main driving forces behind Germany’s military support for Kyiv, which totals 11.5 billion euros annually. Unlike the Bundeswehr’s usual complex procurement system, this small team prides itself on being able to finalize arms deals for Ukraine in just two weeks.

“We have extremely short decision-making chains. This makes us agile and flexible,” said Brigadier General Joachim Kashke, a former Tornado fighter pilot who heads the unit.

Reserve officer Matthias Puschnig, who has spent most of the last three years working at Sonderstab Ukraine, recalls how people in Berlin were surprised after the delivery of five reconnaissance drones from the German startup Quantum Systems to Ukraine. The Ukrainian military connected these drones to the Starlink network and used them to locate targets for artillery. “That’s when we first realized why the Ukrainians were successful: because they were doing exactly these kinds of things,” said Puschnig.

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