‘Game change’: Germany unveils decision to send modern tanks to Ukraine
Joel Gehrke
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Ukrainian forces are poised to acquire scores of Western main battle tanks following Germany’s decision to donate a squadron of Leopards to a multinational coalition of tank donors.
“This is an important game change, possibly also for this war, at least in the current phase,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Wednesday.
The decision represents a major breakthrough for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has pleaded for tanks and other heavy weaponry for months. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has proven hesitant to provide heavy weaponry to Ukraine throughout the war, due to his misgivings about how such aid might affect the risk of a clash with Russia, but he relented on Wednesday following discussions with the United States and other NATO leaders.
“Trust me, trust the government,” Scholz told German lawmakers. “By acting in an internationally coordinated manner, we will ensure that this support is possible without the risks to our country growing in the wrong direction.”
GERMANY URGES ALLIES TO TRAIN UKRAINIANS ON LEOPARD TANKS
Scholz’s announcement coincided with reports that President Joe Biden likewise will authorize the provision of U.S.-made Abrams tanks to Ukraine, despite previous American assessments that it would be impractical to transfer those systems. Scholz’s team spent much of the last year arguing that Germany could not provide Leopard tanks because no other Western power had done so, but then Berlin set the stricter condition that it would only authorize the tanks in concert with a parallel U.S. gift.
“The German population is actually split into two more or less even groups of people who think ‘ok, we’ve done enough, we should not do more in terms of sending tanks’, and an another half saying ‘we have to help the Ukrainians more than we already did,’” the German Marshall Fund’s Markus Ziener told France 24. “So I think [Scholz] was looking at this — and that was the main reason he was so hesitant.”
Germany plans to send 14 of the Leopards, enough for a Ukrainian tank squadron — the same number of tanks donated by the United Kingdom, which opened its arsenal of Challenger 2s, and Poland, which has applied intense public pressure on Berlin to upgrade the Ukrainian tank forces in recent weeks.
“German main battle tanks, further broadening of defense support & training missions, green light for partners to supply similar weapons,” Zelensky tweeted. “Just heard about these important & timely decisions in a call with [Scholz]. Sincerely grateful to the Chancellor and all our friends in.”
The Leopard tanks are owned by more than a dozen European countries, several of which are expected to join the donation drive in a reported effort to provide Ukraine with about 80 tanks in advance of a major clash with Russian forces this spring.
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“The main thing is, this is a completely obvious overestimation of the potential (the supply of tanks) would add to the armed forces of Ukraine,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “These tanks will burn down just like all the other ones. … Except they cost a lot, and this will fall on the shoulders of European taxpayers.”