On the French channel LCI this Sunday (22), the German Minister of Foreign Affairs, Annalena Baerbock, said that Germany will not oppose if Poland wants to send its Leopard-2 tanks to Ukraine.
Asked what would happen if Warsaw asked Berlin for permission to send its heavy armored vehicles to the government in Kiev, Baerbock said that question had not yet been asked, “but if it is asked, we will not object.” Poland needs to make a formal request because, technically, German tank operators have to ask Germany for permission to export them.
The Leopard-2 is the main tank model in operation in Europe, with around 2,500 units in 15 countries. Kiev has already asked for at least 300 modern tanks to try to contain Russian forces in Donbass, the east where Moscow reaps its first victories in months, but so far the situation remains unclear.
Last Friday (20), countries supporting 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 in a much-anticipated meeting held in Germany.
“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,” said German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. to the horror of other ministers gathered at a base in Ramstein.
Last Monday (16), the Finnish government had already asked Berlin for approval to send its tanks —in the process of joining NATO, the country has a fleet of more than 200 Leopard-2s. Also last week, the UK confirmed the shipment of 14 Challenger-2 models to Kiev. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, in turn, promised that the equipment will be “incinerated” if it goes into the field.
Until now, Germany had agreed to send 40 Marder light armor, quite lethal, but in a lower category than tanks. This Sunday, on ARD TV, Pistorius said that the country should decide soon on the delivery of tanks to Ukraine. He said the government would not make a hasty decision, as it needs to consider several factors, including consequences for the country’s security.
Last week, the newspaper Bild am Sonntag published an interview with the president of Rheinmetall, the manufacturer of the Leopard-2, which explained another side of the issue. “Even if the decision to ship our tanks were taken tomorrow, delivery would take until the beginning of 2024,” said Armin Papperger.
He was referring to equipment stocked in Germany: 22 Leopard-2s and 88 older Leopard-1s. They would have to be dismantled and reassembled to become operational. That is, for something to be done more efficiently, tanks from European countries’ active arsenals would have to be sent.
Ukraine operated, before the war, 957 tanks of Soviet origin, most of which were T-72s. Poland sent about 230 of these models to Ukrainians. In all, according to the Dutch monitoring website Oryx, 449 have already been documented lost. On Thursday (19), Moscow reacted with a nuclear threat to the promise of Ukraine’s allies to authorize the shipment of more robust weapons to the country.
Kremlin hard-line representative, Dmitri Medvedev, who presided the country on behalf of Vladimir Putin from 2008 to 2012, went to Telegram to comment on the meeting on Friday (20) of the group of 50 countries led by NATO forces, the western military alliance , at the American base in Ramstein, Germany.
“Underdeveloped political revelers repeat as a mantra: ‘To obtain peace, Russia must lose’. The elementary conclusion never occurs to them: the defeat of a nuclear power in a conventional war can lead to nuclear war. Nuclear powers do not lose conflicts in which their fate is at stake.”
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