Tanks sent to Ukraine: why kyiv will have to be patient?

kyiv greeted the news with the greatest relief. On Wednesday, Germany announced that it would deliver to Ukraine the 14 Leopard tanks that President Volodymyr Zelensky had been insisting on for months to defend his country against the Russian invasion. In the process, Norway and Spain followed suit in Berlin, as did the United States, which will soon deliver 31 Abrams tanks. If the Ukrainian president finally saw his wish granted on the day of his 45th birthday and hailed an “important step in the final victory”, these combat vehicles are still far from treading the battlefield.

Train the crews

According to estimates by Boris Pistorius, the new German Minister of Defense quoted by BFMTV, the first tanks could be operational “at the end of March, beginning of April”. Not before. The use of such equipment indeed requires rigorous training and requires a substantial crew. “You must already learn to drive these tanks but also to use its weapon system, which takes several weeks”, confirms to Europe 1 General Jérôme Pellistrandi, editor-in-chief of the magazine National Defense.

Once the piloting of the machines has been mastered, it is still necessary to know how to handle them in a coordinated way. “There is indeed all the tactical training to be carried out”, continues General Pellistrandi. “You have to be able to train a platoon of tanks under the orders of a lieutenant. And this requires collective training in order to learn to maneuver together”. In parallel, it is also necessary to train the maintenance teams and in particular the mechanics, essential to ensure the logistics of the vehicles. A process that takes about “two months” according to General Pellistrandi.

At the same time, tanks brought into battle in the field must be carefully checked before heading out onto the battlefield. “It’s the same principle as an overhaul for a car”, schematizes Jérôme Pellistrandi.

Transport the material to Ukraine

It is then necessary to ensure the transport of the machines towards a combat zone located more than 2,000 km from Berlin. Most often, the train is favored because of the size of the vehicles involved. “Once they reach the border with Ukraine, the Ukrainians have to come and get them. Because vis-à-vis Russia, there is no question of Germans driving tanks themselves on Ukrainian soil “, emphasizes Jérôme Pellistrandi. The tanks must then be routed to the front, located on the other side of the country. “All while trying to be as discreet as possible with regard to Russian intelligence,” notes the general.

Finally, we have to deal with the administrative and technical constraints facing the Allies. “For example, the gauge of the railways is not the same in Ukraine. So that means that the tanks have to be landed, all in the most total discretion. All of this takes a lot of time”, points out Jérôme Pellistrandi. kyiv therefore has no choice but to take its troubles patiently as Russian missiles continue to fall on Ukrainian soil. This Thursday, 11 people lost their lives in bombings while power cuts are increasing in the capital and in several regions.