Delivery from the Czech Republic takes time
Germany releases 58 infantry fighting vehicles for Ukraine
4/1/2022 1:26 p.m
Well then: Germany agrees that combat vehicles can be delivered to the Ukraine. The 58 BMP-1 vehicles come from GDR stocks and are located in the Czech Republic. However, delivery will take some time.
Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht has approved another delivery of weapons to the Ukrainian army, as “Welt am Sonntag” reports. These are 58 armored personnel carriers that originally came from the stocks of the National People’s Army of the GDR. The BMP-1 armored personnel carrier (also known as the PbV-501) was armed with cannon and machine guns and was part of the standard equipment of the Warsaw Pact armies.
The armored personnel carriers came into the possession of the Bundeswehr with reunification and were initially decommissioned by them at the end of 1993 and handed over to the Swedish army, among others. This model is also said to have been delivered to Greece and Finland. The Swedish government later resold them to a Czech company, which in turn is now trying to sell them to the Ukrainian army. However, a German permit was required for this. This has now taken place, this was confirmed by a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense “Welt am Sonntag”. However, the delivery to Ukraine will not take place immediately because the armored personnel carriers still have to be repaired beforehand. This will take a few weeks.
Despite the “turning point” proclaimed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the federal government initially only supplied helmets and anti-tank weapons. However, the delivery of artillery and tanks has so far stalled them. The armored personnel carriers represent a new quality – even if they are not classic battle tanks as infantry combat vehicles.
Delivery may take time
The change of course came about under the impression of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and pressure from Western allies. Lambrecht spoke to US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon on Wednesday. While still in Washington, she also telephoned the Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Resnikov.
On Thursday evening, Lambrecht was on the talk show “Maybrit Illner” from the USA and reported there about her conversation with Resnikov: “The decision that I was able to tell him about an end-user tax, which made him very happy. ” Only an hour earlier, Lambrecht’s ministry had informed Prague that this time the federal government would agree to handing over the armored personnel carriers to Ukraine. The “end-use clause” includes an obligation on the part of the federal government to give consent to arms deliveries if they originally come from the Bundeswehr. This is the case with the BMP-1 Combat Vehicles.