On delivery of heavy weapons
Strack-Zimmermann: Scholz could have “jammed”.
4/12/2022 4:02 am
The Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin, Melnyk, demands the delivery of heavy war equipment from Germany for the fight against the Russian aggressor. FDP defense expert Strack-Zimmermann supports the demand – and suggests why Chancellor Scholz is hesitating.
The Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, is pushing for the delivery of heavy weapons to his country. In the Spiegel top-level discussion, Melnyk called for a crisis meeting in the Chancellery with participants from the Foreign Office, the Defense and Economics Ministries, but also from the armaments industry. “We want to be honest and serious and continue the discussion and see what is realistic and what is not,” said Melnyk.
“We have to assume that this war can last for many months, if not years,” said the ambassador. “So we could already order something today, even if the delivery times are long.” Ukraine still does not know to what extent the federal government supports Ukraine.
The FDP defense expert Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann supported the call for a leadership role for the Chancellor. The chair of the Defense Committee in the Bundestag criticized that communication between the ministries was “super bad”. Olaf Scholz has the authority to set guidelines. “Now leadership must come in,” she demanded. “Somebody has to wear the hat.” However, it could be that Scholz, to put it bluntly, “jammed” the delivery of heavy weapons because he had different opinions in his party.
“There is hardly any close combat anymore”
Melnyk demanded the delivery of heavy war equipment such as Leopard tanks, howitzers and armored personnel carriers. “Now there is hardly any close combat, we are being shot at from a greater distance,” said the diplomat. The most important thing is supplying Ukraine with air defense systems “that make the sky safer”.
Strack-Zimmermann advocated the delivery of heavy weapons, but also pointed out to Melnyk that the Ukrainian soldiers still had to be trained to use many of these weapons. Strack-Zimmermann therefore suggested supplying Ukraine with Russian-Soviet weapons from the stocks of Eastern European NATO members, with which their soldiers were familiar.