The United States and Germany announced on Thursday, January 5, the next delivery to Ukraine of armored infantry vehicles, of the Bradley type on the American side, and of the Marder model on the German side, according to a joint press release from the White House. and the chancellery in Berlin.
Germany, under international pressure to beef up its military assistance to Ukraine, has also pledged to provide an anti-aircraft defense battery made up of Patriot missiles, as the United States has already done. According to the German magazine Der Spiegelthe number of Marder tanks provided will be between twenty and forty.
These announcements follow a conversation between US President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who expressed their “common determination” to support Ukraine, the statement said. Volodymyr Zelensky immediately greeted “a very important decision” thanking the American and German leaders.
France, for its part, promised on Wednesday to deliver AMX-10 RC light combat tanks to kyiv, which had further increased the pressure on the German Chancellor, regularly accused of reluctantly supporting Ukraine militarily.
US aid of around $2.85 billion
Ukraine’s European allies have delivered Soviet-designed tanks before, but never yet Western-made tanks, despite repeated requests from kyiv. In service since the 1970s, the Marder are light armored vehicles allowing the transport of troops. Their main armament is a 20 millimeter cannon.
The Bradleys are machines of the same type, in service since the beginning of the 1980s. In the M2 model, they are equipped with a 25 mm cannon as well as an anti-tank missile launcher, and can carry, in addition to the crew, six fighters. Ukraine is also calling for tanks in good and due form, more powerfully armed, for example German tanks of the Leopard 2 type.
Joe Biden and Olaf Scholz “will appreciate any additional donation of air defense systems and combat vehicles”, concludes the joint press release. The US announcement is the latest move by the Biden administration to supply Ukraine with increasingly deadly and powerful weapons to help it fend off Russian forces.
The aid — totaling about $2.85 billion — is the largest in a series of shipments of military equipment from Pentagon stockpiles. The objective is to deliver as much material as possible to the Ukrainian forces during the winter months, before the arrival of spring and the expected intensification of the fighting.