Triangle deal proposed
Ukraine wants 100 martens from the Bundeswehr
04/06/2022, 12:01 p.m
The Ukraine is hoping that Germany will deliver its battle tanks – this time it’s not about old GDR vehicles, but about Marders from the Bundeswehr. Instead, she proposes a game about the gang, which is not yet very popular in Berlin.
The Ukrainian government is still waiting for the German government to approve a delivery of 100 used tanks. At the end of last week, Kyiv contacted the chancellery directly about this matter, reports “Welt”, citing Ukrainian government circles. However, no signal had come by Tuesday evening as to whether the permit would be granted.
On “RTL Direkt” the Ukrainian ambassador Andriy Melnyk said: “When we say we want more weapons, that means that we don’t want to prolong this war, we want to shorten the war and the suffering of the people.” Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock signaled openness. You are now also looking at systems that you have not previously delivered, she said on Monday in Berlin. However, she did not mention tank deliveries.
It’s about 100 Marder tanks. The largest German armaments group, Rheinmetall, had already offered this to the federal government on February 28. According to the report, the vehicles are currently at Rheinmetall because the Bundeswehr has retired them – they would have to be overhauled if they were to be used in Ukraine.
However, this would take until next year. The idea is therefore that the Bundeswehr should give its own Marder tanks to the Ukraine and fill the resulting gaps with the overhauled Marders in the coming year.
Klitschko made a claim
At a meeting with Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the Chancellery on Friday last week, the delegation led by ex-boxing world champion Wladimir Klitschko presented the demand for the tanks, the newspaper wrote. The delegation made it clear that the Marder delivery is currently the top Ukrainian priority.
As the newspaper further reports, the Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Resnikov had already asked for the Marder tanks in a letter and a subsequent telephone call with his German colleague Christine Lambrecht in the middle of last week. However, according to Ukrainian sources, Lambrecht refused, arguing that the tanks were involved in NATO tasks.
In the “early start” on ntv, the FDP politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann said that Germany should deliver tanks. But: Under no circumstances can the troops weaken themselves by supplying weapons. The tasks in the NATO alliance must be performed, according to the chairwoman of the Defense Committee in the Bundestag.
On Tuesday, Union faction leader Friedrich Merz also referred to reports about the tanks available at Rheinmetall. If the vehicles are actually just sitting there and the federal government doesn’t approve delivery to Ukraine, that would be “really a big omission on the part of the federal government,” he said. Scholz must personally take care of the matter – “that’s a matter for the boss”.