“Training takes too long”
Klingbeil gives new reason for Panzer-No
09/15/2022, 9:38 p.m
In the debate about the delivery of battle tanks to Ukraine, the Social Democrats and the Chancellery are the main brakes. After NATO and the USA contradicted the fear of going it alone, SPD leader Klingbeil now finds a new reason for rejecting Kyiv.
In the debate about deliveries of main battle tanks to Ukraine, SPD leader Lars Klingbeil emphasized that the federal government agreed not to deliver any Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine at the moment. This was agreed in the traffic light government, he said in Oldenburg, referring to the Greens, FDP and SPD. Klingbeil argued that training on these modern western main battle tanks took far too long to have any effect at this stage of the war. Ukrainian soldiers themselves asked to be trained longer than planned during training on the Panzerhaubitze 2000, said the SPD leader.
Klingbeil thus deviated from the line with which Chancellor Olaf Scholz had previously justified his no to Kyiv. According to Scholz, the federal government is concerned with not going it alone with its western partners. “It is the attitude of the entire federal government that Germany will not go it alone.” Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had previously said in the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”: “As far as modern battle tanks are concerned, you can only decide together, in a coalition and internationally.” The Greens politician added that in the crucial phase that Ukraine is currently in, this is not a decision that should be delayed for long.
USA and NATO give the green light
Statements from the USA and from NATO were last understood in Berlin as an encouragement to deliver further weapon systems. The FDP and the Greens in particular were increasingly demanding the delivery of Leopard tanks to Kyiv. “There are no longer any valid arguments not to support Ukraine and deny them heavy weapons,” said Defense Committee Chair Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann. “The Ukrainian army has shown in an impressive way that it is able to adapt Western military equipment extremely quickly. We have to take note of that and act accordingly,” said the FDP politician. “Germany must lead the way in Europe. That is not going it alone or a lack of coordination, that is the wish of the partners. Anyone who interprets this wish differently is ignoring reality,” said Strack-Zimmermann, referring to the previous argumentation of the Chancellery.
Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht announced in the afternoon that she would deliver two more MARS multiple rocket launchers and 50 Dingo armored vehicles to Ukraine. In addition, 200 rockets would be made available for the multiple rocket launchers, said the SPD politician in Berlin at the start of the Bundeswehr conference. Lambrecht did not announce deliveries of armored personnel carriers and battle tanks, as requested by the Ukraine, but referred to an exchange of armored rings with Greece.