Countries backing Ukraine’s war effort against the Russian invasion, led by NATO, the Western military alliance, failed to reach a conclusion on sending tanks to Kiev at a much-anticipated meeting in Germany on Friday. 20).
The bucket of cold water came from the new German Minister of Defense, Boris Pistorius, the owner of the key that could open the door to the supply of the model of this type of armored vehicle most used in Europe, the Leopard-2. Technically, German tank operators have to ask Berlin for permission to export them.
“There are good reasons for and against the rendition, and in view of the global situation of a war that has now lasted almost a year, all the pros and cons have to be weighed carefully,” Pistorius said, to the horror of other ministers gathered at the meeting. main American base in Germany, in Ramstein.
Pistorius said air defense, like the Patriot batteries that Berlin, Washington and Amsterdam have pledged to deploy, is the priority right now. Everything indicates that the Germans continue to avoid provoking the Russians, for fear of an escalation in the conflict that could lead to a Third World War – energy dependence, the reason for the previous caution, has already been practically cut.
Officials from the 30 NATO countries, the two candidates to join the alliance, Finland and Sweden, and other allied nations participated. Earlier, ministers made explicit requests for Berlin to yield.
They heard, via video, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky practically begging. “War does not allow delays. I can thank you hundreds of times, but hundreds of thanks are not hundreds of tanks. Time must be our common weapon,” he said. Present, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Oleksii Reznikov, repeated the appeal.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg from Norway has sweetened the situation. “We also have to remember not only to focus on the new platforms, but also to ensure that all the ones that are already there continue to work,” he told Reuters agency.
Throughout the war, fear of escalation and the limitations of its own arsenals have dictated the size of support for Kiev, which has already grown a lot. Fighter planes, for example, are even more taboo than tanks — NATO vetoed the transfer of Polish MiG-29s, for example.
The mountain in Ramstein, however, did not just give birth to Kiev’s rat of frustration. Eleven countries presented their collaboration for a new military aid megapackage, with various weapons that could make a difference on the battlefield.
The most impressive aid will come from the United States, which, with an additional US$ 2.5 billion (R$ 13 billion) in arms, reaches US$ 26.7 billion (R$ 140 billion) in military support since the beginning of the war —the largest on the planet, nearly seven times the 2021 Ukrainian defense budget.
The American package includes 59 Bradley armored infantry vehicles, 90 Stryker light armored vehicles and 18 Paladin self-propelled howitzers — which will keep company with an uncertain number of the same type of Archer weaponry, donated by Sweden.
France has designated an uncertain number of AMX light tanks. This Friday, President Emmanuel Macron said at a base in his country that the French defense budget will rise by almost 30% from 2024, to almost US$ 75 billion (R$ 390 billion).
Finland announced US$ 434 million (R$ 2.2 billion) in military aid, but only intended to send some of its 200 Leopard-2s, 100 of them in stock. The tank is used by 12 European nations, with a fleet of around 2,300 units on the continent.
For the time being, the United Kingdom remains alone in its promise to send tanks: 14 Challenger-2 models are expected to arrive in Ukraine at some point, nothing that will make a difference in the balance of the war. Experts from the IISS (London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies) say at least 100 tanks are needed to impact the conflict.
Zelensky wanted 300. Before the war, according to the IISS’s Annual Military Balance, Kiev had 987 tanks, mostly Soviet T-64 models with varying degrees of modernization. After the start of the conflict, it received 230 Soviet T-72s from neighboring Poland, the most belligerent Eastern European member of NATO. Until Thursday (19), it had lost 449 tanks in the war, according to the monitoring website Oryx.
The Ukrainians’ focus is on holding back the Russian advance in the east of the country, which has been slow but steady. This Friday, Moscow announced that it had captured Klischiivka, a small town neighboring Bakhmut, the center of the offensive in the Donetsk region – the least controlled by the Russians of the four that Vladimir Putin illegally annexed in September.
The Russian reaction to the German meeting was predictable. After a meeting of the Putin-led Security Council, the Kremlin said the eventual deployment of tanks “will not change anything fundamentally”.
“We are seeing an indirect, and sometimes direct, increase in the involvement of NATO countries in the conflict. We see a devotion to the dramatic illusion that Ukraine can win. This will be cause for regret, we are sure,” the spokesman said. voice Dmitry Peskov.
The day before, the council’s number 2, former president Dmitry Medvedev, had resumed the atomic threats that from time to time characterize Moscow’s rhetoric. He said that the West only sees one way out of the crisis, the defeat of Russia, but forgets that such a scenario could lead to a nuclear war – the Russians have the largest arsenal of its kind in the world, alongside the US.
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