At a meeting at the US Air Force base in Ramstein, Secretary of Defense Christine Lambrecht plans to announce the arms delivery. At the American invitation, representatives from 40 countries discussed the Ukraine war there.
Secretary of Defense Christine Lambrecht visits the 9th Armored Training Brigade in Munster.
suk./ (dpa) The federal government apparently wants to allow tanks from industry stocks to be shipped to Ukraine after all. The armaments manufacturer Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) is to be given the green light to be able to sell technically refurbished “Gepard” anti-aircraft tanks from previous Bundeswehr stocks. Based on this information, a corresponding decision was made in principle.
At the invitation of US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, representatives from around 40 countries met on Tuesday at the US air force base in Ramstein in Rhineland-Palatinate to discuss the Ukraine war. According to media information, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht wants to announce the delivery of weapons there.
Krauss-Maffei Wegmann has a medium two-digit number of these tanks from the disbanded army air defense of the Bundeswehr. These tanks are based on the chassis of the Leopard 1 and are equipped with two 35mm cannons and radar and can engage ground targets in addition to air targets. Combating flying targets in conjunction with other forces, on the other hand, is considered to be technically much more demanding.
According to information from the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, the decision about the delivery should have been made on Monday. Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the SPD are giving in to the growing pressure from the traffic light coalition. In the past few days, the FDP and the Greens had increasingly vehemently called on the head of government to support Ukraine in the fight against Russian troops, including with heavy weapons such as tanks. The CDU and CSU have drawn up their own Bundestag motion in which they demand the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine, thereby putting additional pressure on Scholz.