Debate about “Leopard” delivery
Calls for help from Kyiv put Pistorius under direct pressure
1/18/2023 3:23 am
Fresh in office, Boris Pistorius has to deal with the question of whether Germany should deliver “Leopard” tanks to Ukraine. An important meeting with the allies is scheduled for Friday.
Immediately after his nomination, the new Defense Minister Boris Pistorius was under intense pressure to implement the battle tank deliveries demanded by Ukraine. Green Group Vice President Agnieszka Brugger told the media company Table.Media: “Anyone who can agree to the delivery of martens can also deliver ‘Leopard tanks’.” Clear demands came directly to Pistorius from the Ukraine.
The former Interior Minister of Lower Saxony is to be sworn in in the Bundestag on Thursday and the next day to attend a meeting of the US-led “Contact Group for the Defense of Ukraine” at the US Ramstein Air Force base in Rhineland-Palatinate. There, the western allies want to discuss further military support for the country attacked by Russia. This also raises the thorny question of whether “Leopard 2” type battle tanks should be delivered.
“We have to move forward”
Germany plays a key role in this, because the tanks are produced here and the federal government therefore has to approve every export from other countries. US President Joe Biden and Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke on the phone again on Tuesday and discussed support for Ukraine, the White House later announced. According to federal government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit, Scholz and Biden agreed that this support must be “effective, sustainable and closely coordinated.” Most recently, Biden and Scholz had agreed to supply armored personnel carriers to Ukraine.
The head of the Munich Security Conference, Christoph Heusgen, advocates Germany supplying Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine. Many partners, such as Great Britain or Poland, wanted to deliver battle tanks to Ukraine themselves and were in favor of Germany doing the same, Heusgen said on ZDF on Tuesday evening. “We must lead the way there. And we must now also deliver the ‘Leopard 2’ in the convoy.”
Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk told the news portal t-online that he expects Pistorius to act “much more decisively and quickly” than his predecessor Christine Lambrecht. Germany must deliver “battle tanks, fighter jets, warships, multiple rocket launchers, artillery, anti-aircraft defense and of course sufficient ammunition”.
Domröse expects battle tank delivery
Wladimir Klitschko, brother of Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko, wrote to Pistorius on Twitter: “We in Ukraine are counting on you being serious about the sentence: ‘Ukraine must win this war!’ Only that is important for us now and for that we need one thing above all: ‘Leopard II’ tanks!”. The Ambassador of Ukraine in Germany, Oleksii Makeiev, joined the demand in “Münchner Merkur” and criticized that Germany apparently does not have a long-term strategy for deliveries, but “always only thinks from day to day”.
The former Bundeswehr General Hans-Lothar Domröse expects that the restraint in Berlin will give up. “I expect that the federal government will make the commitment to deliver ‘Leopard’ battle tanks at the meeting of Ukraine supporters on Friday in Ramstein,” Domröse told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “I assume that they will not only allow the European partners to send the battle tanks, but also add ‘Leos’ from the Bundeswehr’s inventory – maybe in the low double-digit range.” In this way, a total of around 100 Leopard tanks could be delivered to Ukraine from Europe.